The Three Tomoe
by pinkrose064
Summary: It was Mayonaka Shinjiro who treated Uchiha Itachi's terminal illness, but how did the secretly kindhearted Itachi come to be tended to by a youth with his own visual prowess? And after the Fourth Great War, how will this former member of Bright Lightning interact with Itachi's brother, Sasuke? Rated T as always because Naruto is violent and occasionally gory.
1. Survivor

"Fuushin-niisan, I'm going out to collect some herbs for medicine."

The leader of Bright Lightning turned and looked at the ten-year-old boy who had spoken before nodding to him, "All right. Just be careful, and be back before dark."

"Got it!" The boy replied before taking off. Before long, he was kneeling in a field, carefully gathering herbs that could be used to make medicine.

Mayonaka Shinjiro was one of the youngest members of Bright Lightning. Although he knew his origins, the midnight blue-haired boy had no memories of his family. For most of his life, he had been enslaved by a man named Oyashiro En, trained to serve as something of an advisor to the man in his business dealings by using his visual prowess, the Shinjistugan, to read people's chakra and indicate whether they or not they were lying. There were many other children enslaved by En, all of them possessing Kekkei Genkai. Most were forced to battle in a place called the Coliseum, where the selfish socialites gambled by forcing enslaved shinobi to fight for entertainment, with themselves as the prize for winning. However, it was within the past year or so that the older children had managed to escape, and although he was not a skilled combatant, they had taken pity on him and brought him along. They had then formed a group of noble thieves to help the oppressed. This was Bright Lightning. Although he was not particularly good at fighting, Shinjiro was useful to the group in other ways, such as the little bit of medical ninjutsu he had been taught by En for emergencies.

Shinjiro knew that the following day would be important for Bright Lightning. Kirigakure, one of the Five Shinobi Villages, wanted to hire them for something. It was undoubtedly a job that would pay well, but would probably be dangerous, and thus, it was important to stock up on supplies now.

Suddenly, Shinjiro stopped his work for a moment, his smile turning to a frown, before he quickly resumed his actions, brow furrowed in thought. Somebody was watching him with an intent to kill, but why? More importantly, what should he do? He was a mere child, and not particularly strong, but he knew that the weak could sometimes survive by outsmarting their opponents. He debated what to do. Whoever was watching him was strong, of that, he was certain. He was also certain that he could not make it back to Bright Lightning's camp in time, and that even if he tried, he would be placing his comrades in danger. He needed help, but who? Shinjiro closed his eyes and focused his senses, scanning the surrounding area for anyone that he might be able ask for help. There! An undoubtedly strong shinobi with fire, wind, and water chakra, some kind of visual prowess, and a kind heart. There was still a chance that shinobi wouldn't help him, but he didn't have any other options either! He bit his thumb and wove a few signs.

_"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" _A falcon instantly appeared and Shinjiro quickly dispatched it before dodging the attack that he sensed heading his way.

巴

Uchiha Itachi was walking along the road in the Land of Steam. He had been working solo for the Akatsuki for the past three years, ever since his partner, Biwa Juzo, was killed in the Land of Water. He didn't really mind working alone, especially considering who his options were for partners at the moment, but when exactly were they going to find new recruits?

Suddenly, the cry of a falcon caught Itachi's ears, and to his surprise, the bird of prey swooped down, stopping to hover right in front of him, screeching at him before circling him, then screeching at him again. _'A summoning falcon?' _He wondered to himself, _'It's not carrying a message... does it want me to follow it?' _Assuming that was the case, Itachi turned and followed the falcon.

巴

Shinjiro panted as he ran, dodging attacks as they came by sensing where they were launched from, but the level and number of the attacks were simply too much for the ten-year-old. He cried out as a kunai lodged itself in his left shoulder, and a second one struck his right calf a second later, causing him to fall flat on his face. He gripped the trunk of a nearby tree to pull himself up, pulling the kunai out of his injured shoulder and then removing the other out from his leg before turning to rest his back against the tree.

Two masked figures appeared before him, the symbol of Kirigakure engraved upon the kabuki style masks that covered their faces.

"Kirikagure ANBU..." Shinjiro managed with a gasp. Tears streamed from his eyes as understanding crossed his face. "I see... so that's it..."

The two shinobi prepared to finish their target when the sharp cry of a falcon filled the air before the bird swooped down to roost next to Shinjiro. The ANBU looked at each other, then shrugged and launched kunai at the young boy.

klang!*

The sound of metal striking metal filled the air, and Shinjiro opened his eyes just in time to see that the attack had been deflected by kunai that had been thrown from the side. Both he and the ANBU looked in the direction these kunai had come from to find an ebony-haired teenager with sharp red eyes focusing on the two masked shinobi.

"Uchiha... Itachi..." One of the ANBU said, his voiced laced with fear and surprise.

Itachi closed his eyes for a brief moment before reopening them, showing that the appearance of his Sharingan had changed. "Tsukuyomi." Less than a second later, both ANBU crumpled over before exploding. Itachi's eyes turned to meet Shinjiro's, and a second of silence passed between them before Itachi's eyes widened incrementally.

"You really should stop." Shinjiro said flatly as he perceived Itachi realizing that what he was attempting hadn't worked, "You're just going to make your eyes worse than they already are." As Itachi's eyes widened further, Shinjiro shifted slightly in an attempt to get more comfortable. "I have a Kekkei Genkai that makes me immune to genjutsu. It's sort of the reason those ANBU were after me."

"What do you mean?" Itachi asked, still intent on finding the reason this kid had sent a falcon to get his attention.

"My Kekkei Genkai also allows me to sense people's intentions." Shinjiro explained, "My comrades and I have a meeting with some higher-ups from Kirigakure tomorrow, but the fact that they sent those ANBU to assassinate me means that Kiri must be planning to betray us, and my abilities would get in the way of that."

"Are you and your comrades aware that Kirigakure is also known as the 'Blood Mist Village?' Itachi asked.

Shinjiro's eyes widened and he looked away, "I'm not sure if the others do or not..." He looked back at Itachi, "To be honest, I didn't really know if you would help me or not. I didn't actually _know_ who I was sending my falcon to, just that you were strong enough to take on those ANBU. That said, I still knew that there was no guarantee that you would help me. For all I knew, you would ignore my falcon or turn a blind eye once you saw the ANBU. But my chances of survival were better if I at least tried."

"You're pretty smart for your age." Itachi remarked.

"Not smart enough." Shinjiro replied in frustration, starting to pant again with sweat dripping down his face. "I should've known that something wasn't right when Kirigakure sent their message to us by a Shinobi Mailman. That they didn't send a messenger should've been a sign that they didn't want me reading their chakra." He blinked his eyes in a daze, but attempted to reach for something in his supply pack, "In any case, I've got to warn my comrades before... before..." The boy slumped over, passing out on the ground where he sat, and Itachi sweat-dropped, was wondering what he should do when he sensed another person coming down the road. Judging by the aura, it was a young girl about the same age as this boy. He would have to leave him to her.

Truthfully, he didn't like just up and leaving the injured child and hoping for the best, but what was he supposed to do? An S-Rank criminal carrying an injured child and bringing him to a doctor was definitely something that would arouse people's suspicion.

巴

Shinjiro groaned as he opened his eyes, only to find a young girl about his own age looking down at him. Her eyes widened and she quickly turned her head. "Otousama! He's waking up!"

Shinjiro blinked in confusion as a middle-aged man walked in following the girl's call and smiled gently at him. "Hey there. How are you feeling, son? I was pretty worried when Oyu found you all bloodied up on the road."

Shinjiro processed this, trying to remember what had happened, then gasped. "My comrades!" He exclaimed as he sat up before cringing in pain.

The man frowned and knelt down next to him. "Whoa now. You're not going anywhere. You were lucky to survive as it is."

Shinjiro shook his head as the man tried to make him lay back down, "You don't understand...! My comrades! Bright Lightning is in danger!"

"Bright Lightning?" The man's frown deepened, "I heard that they were wiped out by the Hidden Mist two days ago... You've been asleep for five days, son."

Shinjiro's eyes widened and then he looked down as they became filled with tears, "No..."

The man's expression became serious as he looked at the distraught boy, "Did you know about this attack ahead of time somehow?"

Shinjiro nodded. "We were supposed to meet with some officials from Kirigakure regarding a mission... but the day before, the day your daughter found me, I was attacked by Kiri ANBU. I managed to enlist the aid of a shinobi who was stronger than them, but..."

"I suppose that explains a lot..." The man said with a sigh.

"What am I going to do?" Shinjiro asked as tears streamed down his face, "Bright Lightning was the only family I knew... they were all I had..."

"You can stay here with us." Oyu's father assured him, "Our home is a hot springs resort and medical clinic. As long as you do your share of the chores, we'll be glad to have you."

Shinjiro considered this. "You said that it's a medical clinic? Are you a medical ninja?"

"I was, before my wife and I retired to open this place." He told the boy, "Now, I suppose I'm just a doctor who happens to know medical ninjutsu."

"Then please, make me your student." Shinjiro said, looking up at him with earnest eyes, "I already know the basics. I'm not skilled at combat, but... I want to be able to help people."

The man nodded before gently pushing Shinjiro to lie back down, "After you recover. You need to rest until then. My name is Mako, by the way."

"Mako... sensei..." Shinjiro muttered in confirmation as he fell back asleep.

"Otousama, is what Shinjiro-san said true?" Oyu asked when she and her father entered the kitchen. "Did Kirigakure... take advantage of Bright Lightning?"

"...From what he said, that appears to be the case." Mako said hesitantly, "I had heard that Bright Lightning had attempted to attack nobles from the Land of Water and had been wiped out by the ninja of Kirigakure as a result, but... from what Shinjiro-kun said, it would seem that the Hidden Mist orchestrated the whole thing, in order to curry favor with the nobles in question. I also heard that the members of Bright Lightning tried to ask for help from the villages here in the Land of Steam and were turned away..."

"But why?" Oyu asked in confusion.

Mako sighed, "Hidden Hot Spring Village... and the Land of Steam... are neutral to a fault. In order to avoid conflict with other nations, our people refuse to take a stand for what is right. That's why that nutcase Hidan is running loose with the criminals known as Akatsuki now..."

"Oh..." The girl said, looking down in thought before gripping the fabric of her kimono in frustration. "Otousama... Okaasama... can I ask you something? Would you be angry... if I decided not to become a ninja?"

Mako's wife Miyu looked over at her daughter, "I suppose that would depend on the reason, Oyu." She said, although she seemed to already know the answer.

Oyu's brow was furrowed in thought as she spoke, "After finding Shinjiro-san... and hearing what happened to him... I don't want to be a part of this world... where people are exploited... and those who could do something... simply look the other way."

Mako smiled softly at his daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder, "I understand Oyu, and it's okay if you want to drop out of the program, but... Just make sure you're prepared for the consequences that will come with it."

"Consequences?" Oyu asked in confusion.

"If you leave the training program, regardless of your reasons, there will undoubtedly be people who will say that you are a coward, or that you didn't have what it takes. You have to be prepared for that." Mako explained to her, "Having said that, I think it is more courageous to walk the path you believe to be right, than to simply follow others' expectations."

"I understand."

* * *

So this is a story that serves as a prologue to some of my future stories. It centers around Mayonaka Shinjiro, who appears in part of The Second Survivor, and how it was that he knew Itachi.

EDIT 04/29/19: So I realized after going over some stuff in the anime that Itachi didn't team up with Kisame until he'd been in the Akatsuki for three years, so I had to fix that for the sake of another story.


	2. The Eyes That See the Truth

It was approximately a week later when Shinjiro set out to buy some supplies for Mako. As he navigated the marketplace, he suddenly became aware of a chakra signature he recognized. Glancing around, he quickly spotted the person in question.

"Chino-neesan?" Shinjiro asked in surprise. A girl with blonde hair blinked in surprise and looked at him. Offhand, she appeared to be about his age, but Shinjiro knew well enough that she was actually several years older than him.

"Shinjiro! What are you doing here?!" She asked in surprise.

"I'm the one who should be asking that." Shinjiro replied, "I thought you went back to your ancestral home? What are you doing here in Yugakure?"

Chino's eyes filled with worry and she clasped her hands in front of her in concern, "Fuushin came to me last week, badly injured. He said that Bright Lightning was betrayed by the Hidden Mist and was forced to disband to survive. I've been doing what I can for him, but, well... I came here to see if there was something that could help him. What about you? Fuushin told me that you disappeared just before the incident."

"Never mind that for now!" Shinjiro replied, his mind racing at what Chino had told him, "Let's go!"

"Go? Go where?!" Chino asked in confusion as Shinjiro dragged her through the streets.

"To my shishou! He can help Fuushin-niisan!"

"Shinjiro, you're not making any sense."

"The reason I disappeared just before was because I was attacked by Hidden Mist ANBU." Shinjiro explained, "How I avoided death is a long story, but the doctor who treated my injuries is now my mentor. He'll be able to help!" Upon reaching the inn, he quickly ran inside, still dragging Chino behind him, "Shishou!"

"Shinjiro? What's the matter?" Mako asked in surprise.

"Shishou, one of my comrades from Bright Lightning survived, but he's badly injured! Please! You've got to help him!"

Mako's face filled with concern. "Take me to him."

"That might be a problem..." Chino began awkwardly, "He's in the Valley of Hell..."

"The Valley of...? Why on earth would he be there?!" Mako exclaimed, not bothering to ask who Chino was.

"Because that's where I live." She said matter-of-factly, "I'm from the Chinoike Clan. We used to live in that Valley. Fuushin knew he'd be able to find me there."

"This is Chino-neechan." Shinjiro explained, "She was one of the children that I grew up with."

"Otousama, isn't going to the Valley of Hell forbidden?" Oyu asked nervously.

"Yes, Oyu, it is, but... We are not shinobi, and the inn is far enough removed from the rest of the village that nobody will notice. I'll leave you and your mother in charge of the inn for now." Mako replied as he grabbed a bag of medical supplies.

"But what if-"

"There are plenty of doctors here in Yugakure." He assured her, "But I'm likely the only one who is willing to treat this young man." He looked at Chino, "Lead the way."

巴

It wasn't exactly a hop, skip, and a jump from Yugakure to the Valley of Hell, but Shinjiro, Mako, and Chino managed to make good time. Once they arrived there, Chino quickly led them to an abandoned house where Fuushin lay on a mattress.

"Fuushin! You won't believe who I found! It's Shinjiro! And we've brought a doctor to treat you!" Chino exclaimed as she ran to his side.

Fuushin opened his eyes weakly and looked at Shinjiro. "Shinjiro... you're alive. But how?"

"Never mind that for now." Shinjiro said as he knelt next to his friend, "Worry about yourself." A rainbow tint overcame his eyes and Mako wasted no time.

"Tell me what you see, Shinjiro."

"Several of his wounds are infected, but he doesn't appear to be septic." Shinjiro remarked, "However, his chakra is low. Likely the result of blood loss and lack of nutrient intake since the attack. I can't really evaluate the extent of his wounds though."

"As expected, those eyes of yours are amazing, and well suited to use in medicine." Mako remarked, "I have no doubt that with time and training, you will certainly surpass me as a doctor." He put on a pair of gloves and then moved toward Fuushin, "For now, I'll examine his injuries and show you how to treat them."

巴

"I've done what I can for now, but it will take some time for him to recover from those wounds completely. He'll probably have to undergo significant rehabilitation. I'll send Shinjiro out every other week to check on his progress and bring more supplies." Mako informed Chino when he had finished examining Fuushin.

"Right, thank you." Chino replied before turning to look at Shinjiro, "By the way, why did you disappear right before this happened?"

Shinjiro sighed, "Kirigakure must've known that I would sense their intent to betray us, so they sent ANBU to get rid of me. Fortunately, I managed to obtain aid from an even more powerful shinobi. Shortly afterward, Shishou's daughter, Oyu-chan, found me and helped me."

"To be more accurate, Oyu came and got me, and I helped him." Mako remarked, "Oyu is a slip of a girl. She didn't have the strength to carry him back on her own."

"I see." Chino said thoughtfully before smiling sadly at Shinjiro, "Well I'm glad you're okay. If you hadn't been there to notice me in Yugakure..."

"Yeah..." Shinjiro said with a nod.

巴

It was sometime later when Shinjiro, whilst tending to his chores within the inn, suddenly sensed the chakra of Uchiha Itachi nearby. In fact, it seemed that he was passing by right now. There were a variety of things that Shinjiro could know about the infamous shinobi within the instant that he had sensed him, and he quickly left his work to rush out the door.

"Um... excuse me!" He called urgently, causing the cloaked figure to stop and turn to look at him.

"You..." Itachi began.

"Um... thank you for last time!" Shinjiro blurted out after a moment's hesitation, bowing politely to them, "If you're not in a hurry, why don't you come and rest your body's in my mentor's health resort? Also... I would like to talk to you, Uchiha-han. I think I might be able to help you with your eyes." That wasn't really what he wanted to talk to Itachi about, but he also knew he'd need to come up with a believable reason, and what he had said was not untrue.

"You mentioned something about my eyes the last time..." Itachi remarked, "About making them worse..."

"Yes. I'm an iryouninja, or at least, an iryouninja in training." Shinjiro explained, "I can use my own visual prowess to analyze a person's flow of chakra and detect problems."

Itachi nodded and followed the blue-haired boy inside. "Shinjiro-kun?" Oyu asked when she saw her father's apprentice coming in with the very peculiar strangers.

"Ah, Oyu-chan." Shinjiro said while walking over to her. He leaned over and whispered to her, "Please bring some calming herbal tea and dango to the aromatic treatment room." Oyu looked confused, but nodded and headed into the back.

"Now let's see... It looks like Room 5 on the third floor is open." He pulled out a key and held it out to as he looked at Itachi, "Please follow me."

Itachi nodded and followed Shinjiro into another part of the ryokan. Just as they approached the open door of a room, Oyu arrived with a tray.

"Oh, Shinjiro-kun. I brought what you asked for."

"Thank you, Oyu-chan." Shinjiro said as he accepted the tray. "For the time being, I'm going to be using this room."

"Do you need me to get Otousama?" She asked, but Shinjiro shook his head.

"Not at the moment. This is within my current abilities. We should let him alone in case another patient arrives." Oyu looked quizzical at this statement, but she nodded and walked away. Shinjiro led Itachi into the room and set the tray on a side table before shutting the door. He made a few signs with his hands. "Oto naku no jutsu!" He exclaimed, pressing his palm to the closed door before picking the tray back up and walking over to Itachi, who had sat down. "That was a sealing jutsu to prevent sound from entering or exiting the room." He explained as he set the tray down in front of Itachi, "With that in place, we can talk freely without concern of being overheard by anybody" Itachi raised a brow, but Shinjiro ignored it. "The tea is for you. It relieves stress, and dango are your snack of choice, right?"

"How did you know that?" Itachi asked while reaching forward for the food.

"My visual prowess is known as the Shinjitsugan." Shinjiro explained, "It's related to the Byakugan. It allows me to not only see a person's flow of chakra, but also to analyze their chakra to determine various things about them... Their personalities, their likes and dislikes with regards to basic things, and chakra natures they possess."

"Such insight can be dangerous." Itachi remarked.

"Yes, it can." Shinjiro acknowledged, "My clan has suffered at various times in history because of that. However, it can also enable my survival. The day I was attacked, I sent my falcon to you because I could sense that you were very strong and that you had a kind heart. While that didn't guarantee that you would help me, I had nothing to lose by taking the chance."

"I see..." Itachi said quietly.

"Which brings me to part of what I wanted to talk to you about." Shinjiro said. "I knew the minute I saw you that you are not the person that people say you are." His gaze fell as his expression became tinted with sadness, "I can tell... that you carry great pain and sadness in your heart... as well as deep love... and guilt..." He looked up again slowly, "You don't have to tell me everything. I'm guessing a lot of it is classified. But I want to help you, just as you helped me. Sometimes... just having someone you can confide in can ease the pain a little." When Itachi said nothing, Shinjiro continued, "Quite frankly, Itachi-han, if you keep trying to carry your burdens alone, you're not going to live long enough to carry out whatever goal it is that you are trying to achieve."

At this, Itachi raised his brow again, "What do you mean?"

"Your will to live is strong, but your body is just the opposite." Shinjiro said, "I can already tell. Your body is under enormous strain. Some of that is stress induced, I'm sure, but there's also something else beneath that. Your left eye bleeds when you use your Mangekyou Sharingan, doesn't it?"

"How did you know that?" Itachi asked. He didn't even bother asking how the young boy knew that he had the Mangekyou.

"I can tell that some of the blood vessels around that eye have ruptured numerous times over the years." Shinjiro answered, "While the Mangekyou Sharingan _does_ place strain on the optic nerve, hemorrhages caused by its usage are abnormal."

"You know a lot about the Sharingan." Itachi said, once again raising his brow. Shinjiro looked down.

"For most of my life... I was enslaved by a man who 'collected' children with Kekkei Genkai and used us for various reasons. Because of that, and because of the nature of the Shinjistugan, I've spent most of my life studying every Kekkei Genkai in existence. The only one I don't know much about is the Rinnegan, due to a lack of available data."

"I see..." Itachi began, "So you're an iryouninja with a special talent for treating those with Kekkei Genkai."

"Especially those with visual prowess, yes." Shinjiro said with a nod.

"Do you know anything else about this... condition of mine?"

"There's not much else I can tell by just looking at you right now, although knowing of any other symptoms you've experienced might help."

"There aren't any others that I have noticed..."

"Hm..." Shinjiro said with a nod, his face appearing thoughtful, "The most I can tell is that your organs are... well... under stress. Some of that is stress-induced and some of that is pain-induced, but I think there is probably a third cause that I haven't managed to isolate yet. Even so... if you will at least allow me to do what I can to relieve the first two, your lifespan can at least be extended."

Itachi closed his eyes in thought, "...I can't tell you about what happened in Konoha, but... I suppose I can confide in you regarding my current activity."

"I understand, and please know that whatever you disclose to me, I will take to my grave if you so wish." Shinjiro said with a nod before looking down, "I know all too well... the importance of keeping a secret."

* * *

Finally got around to finishing this chapter. It took me way longer than it should have.

Once again, had to go and edit out Kisame because of timeline issues. He'll show up eventually.


	3. Supporter

"Right, so in order to reduce the strain on your body, it's necessary for you to relieve your pain." Shinjiro said as he stood at the entrance of the ryokan with Itachi, "I asked Shishou and he said that your best bet was a drug called Kotarō. It can only be found in the Land of Medicine, in the Village of Howling Wolves. Give this to the pharmacist there and he'll make what you need." He explained while holding a piece of paper out to Itachi.

"Understood." Itachi replied as he accepted the paper, "What's the name of the place that sells it?"

"Shishou didn't know, so you'll have to ask around when you get there." Shinjiro admitted. "Try to come back here in a month or so. It's best if I can treat you regularly to slow the damage to your body."

"Understood."

巴

"That last mission put a strain on me. I need to rest my body." Itachi told his new partner Kisame a month later as he headed toward Byoukan.

"What do you mean?" Kisame asked.

"There are certain risks associated with the Mangekyou Sharingan." Itachi told him, "In times when I am forced to use it, it becomes necessary for me to recuperate afterward."

"And is that why we've come to Yugakure?" His partner asked as he saw Itachi heading for the entrance of the inn.

Itachi turned and looked at him, "Yeah. There's a physician at this medical resort who is knowledgeable about visual prowess." He entered the inn and found Shinjiro sitting behind the registration desk. The blue-haired boy smiled up at him.

"Itachi-san. I'm glad you came." He said as he stood up from the chair, "I've already asked Oyu-chan to begin preparing things."

"You were expecting me?" Itachi asked with a slightly raised brow.

"Not exactly." Shinjiro said, "I sensed you when you were still about a kilometer away, but I had no way of knowing for sure if you were coming here or if you were in the area for something else."

"Oh? So this kid is a sensory type, huh?" Kisame asked, "But is he really a doctor?"

"I'm actually still learning, but I've studied a great deal about visual prowess." Shinjiro answered, "Who is this, Itachi-san? Your associate?"

"Yeah." Itachi said with a nod.

"Hoshigaki Kisame." The shark man said with a grin, "Nice to meet you."

"Mayonaka Shinjiro." The boy said with a nod, "That sword on your back... that's the sword known as Samehada, right?"

"Oh? Not much escapes your perception, does it?" Kisame asked in amusement.

"Not really, no." Shinjiro replied as he looked at the entrance right as Chino walked in.

"Shinjiro—oh." Chino stopped in her tracks as she took note of the two shinobi and then looked at Shinjiro, who smiled at her apologetically.

"Chino-neesan. I'm sorry, but I'm with a patient right now. Since your business isn't urgent, would you mind waiting in the kitchen?" He asked.

"Uh, sure..." Chino replied.

Shinjiro turned and looked at Kisame, "Itachi-han and I will be a while. Please feel free to enjoy the hot springs while you wait for us." He felt a flare in Chino's chakra as he said this, but he didn't acknowledge it.

"Sure. Thanks." Kisame said.

Shinjiro headed toward the part of the inn that served as the clinic with Itachi and Chino following. As they passed the kitchen, they found Oyu waiting there with a tray.

"Here's the food you asked for, Shinjiro-kun." She said with a smile.

He nodded to the girl as he accepted the tray, "Thanks Oyu-chan. Would you mind keeping Chino-neesan company while I'm treating Itachi-han?"

"Of course." Oyu said with a nod before looking at Chino, "Please come inside, Chino-san."

"Yeah, thanks." Chino said as she walked past Shinjiro. Shinjiro could sense that she was angry with him, but it wasn't a matter he could deal with right now.

Shinjiro went into the treatment room with Itachi, shutting the door and placing his sound-sealing jutsu on the room before walking over to sit down across from Itachi.

"Your friend didn't seem too pleased..." Itachi remarked, and Shinjiro sighed.

"I've known Chino-neesan since I was small. There are times when she can be unreasonable..."

"What do you mean?" Itachi asked.

"There's some bad blood between the Uchiha and the clan that she comes from." The boy explained as he poured Itachi's tea, "However, that matter goes back to the Era of Warring States. In my opinion, there's no use holding a grudge over something that happened more than a century ago. People can't be blamed for the crimes of their ancestors..." He handed the teacup to Itachi, "But never mind that. Has something happened? You seem a bit... refreshed, compared to last time."

"Nothing of importance." Itachi remarked mildly before sipping his tea.

Shinjiro raised a brow at this, "I don't recall you wearing that necklace the last time you were here. Is there some kind of purpose to it?"

Itachi blinked in surprise and then lowered his cup, "A girl in Howling Wolf Village gave it to me, to thank me for defending her from somebody that she owes money to. She said that it can help regulate one's flow of chakra."

Shinjiro nodded, "I wouldn't be surprised at such a thing from the Land of Medicine. However, there's more to it than that. It seems that you've taken a liking to her."

"Not really, although she does make excellent–"

"Itachi-han..." Shinjiro began, "You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can't lie to me. When I asked about the necklace, there was a shift in your chakra that indicated a sentimental fondness for it, and therefore, fondness for the person who gave it to you."

Itachi blinked again, and then sighed. "You remind me of my friend Shisui. He could always tell what I was thinking, even if I didn't quite realize it myself."

"It's not like I can read your mind." Shinjiro replied, "I only interpret the shifts in your chakra."

巴

Sometime later, Itachi had fallen asleep in the treatment room, so Shinjiro asked Mako to keep an eye on him and then went to the kitchen.

"Chino-neesan." He said from the doorway, "I need to go gather some medical herbs. Why don't you accompany me so that we can talk?"

"Uh, sure." Chino said slowly, following the boy out the back way. "So do you care to explain why you have Uchiha Itachi as a patient?" She asked him when they had gone a ways and wouldn't be heard by others.

"Itachi-han saved my life." Shinjiro explained while kneeling down to pick some herbs, "Just before the Hidden Mist betrayed Bright Lightning, they sent ANBU to get rid of me. I managed to get Itachi-han's attention, and he saved me from them."

"But... why would somebody who killed his own clan protect you?" Chino asked in surprise.

"I think it's actually better to ask why he killed his clan, but the answer to that is that I don't know." Shinjiro replied, "Itachi-han actually has a very kind heart and a deep love for his younger brother. However, I don't know the circumstances that result in that tragedy."

"If you say that, it must be true, but..."

"The shinobi world is full of darkness." Shinjiro reminded her, "Sometimes, that darkness can swallow people up even though their hearts are pure."

巴

As the years passed by, Shinjiro came to learn more and more about Itachi and the difficult life that he endured. He did what he could for him, but while he eventually figured out what was wrong with Itachi, he was unable to figure out how to correct it, even as his skill as a doctor grew.

Within Yugakure, he became famous for his talent in obstetrics. The Shinjitsugan enabled him to know instantly whether a woman was pregnant and gave him a great advantage in monitoring the health of both mother and baby. It was for this reason that when Itachi married Amai, the girl he had met in the Howling Wolf Village, and she insisted upon trying to have a child two years later, Itachi asked Shinjiro to look after her if she ever did conceive. Mako, Miyu, and Oyu had gotten used to Itachi's presence and had come to be at ease with him, so the four of them were the only ones who even knew about the marriage.

As he grew into his teens, Shinjiro began to realize that he was in love with Oyu. However, the fact that she was his mentor's father daunted him, and so he kept his feelings to himself, not knowing that she felt the same way. Even so, there could be no doubt of his wish to protect her. In fact, Shinjiro had a habit of denying rooms to anyone who he deemed untrustworthy. He was subtle in this, of course, hiding his reasoning by claiming that they were simply full. However, it was because of this habit that Mako's family came to realize that Itachi's reputation did not match up with his character.

During the course of this time, Itachi revealed more and more information to Shinjiro, although there was a reason for this. He eventually informed him of the Akatsuki's Tsuki no Me Plan and his best chance of not being caught in it. When Itachi passed away, Shinjiro naturally mourned his friend's death, but he hoped that Itachi would finally be at peace.

巴

The Fourth Great Ninja War began, although Yugakure was not directly involved. That said, Shinjiro wondered exactly just how stupid the village could be for choosing to ignore a war that was happening less than a day's run from their own village. Thus, when he and Oyu's family went to Konohagakure to escape from the Tsuki no Me, he told the village guards that they had come there for safety. He really did not like being anywhere near one of the five Great Villages, but he had promised Itachi that he would try to look out for his student, Aiko, who was also supposed to be hiding in the village on the night of Juugoya.

Aiko turned out to be a somewhat headstrong girl with all of the passion that Shinjiro had come to expect from a member of the Uchiha. Even so, she was intelligent and had vast knowledge of the history of the shinobi world. When they came to be attacked by Shirozetsu while hiding in the room beneath the ruins of Nakano Shrine, Aiko proved that she was every inch Itachi's student with her calm, analytical nature and her prowess for battle. There was only one way in which she was reckless, and that was in overusing her Mangekyou Sharingan. Shinjiro swore she must've picked that up from Itachi as well. As the time after they'd defeated the Shirozetsu passed, Aiko nearly destroyed her optic nerves while monitoring the situation on the battlefield where Itachi's brother Sasuke was.

By some miracle, Ootsutsuki Kaguya, the progenitor of Chakra, was defeated, and the rest of the world was released from the Infinite Tsukuyomi. This came as a great relief to Aiko, who apparently feared being stuck with a curse that her ancestor had inadvertently placed upon the Uchiha. Shinjiro couldn't really blame her. After confirming that Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke would survive the battle that had robbed them both of one arm each, Shinjiro and Aiko returned to Konohagakure, where Shinjiro ended up assisting in running things at the hospital until the Fifth Hokage Tsunade could take over.

巴

It was about two months later when Uchiha Amai showed up at Byoukan, extremely pregnant and with Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, and Hyuuga Hinata escorting her. Well, actually, it only _looked_ like she was extremely pregnant. She actually wasn't due for two months, but she was carrying twins. The young woman was naturally still grieving Itachi's death, but she tried to look forward to the future. She wound up giving birth to twins on February 14th, whom she named Dango and Tamana, after two of Itachi's favorite foods. Although fraternal, the two siblings looked exactly alike, at least at this age, leaving even their poor mother to occasionally get them mixed up. She finally resorted to putting a ribbon in Tamana's hair so that everyone could tell them apart.

Two years later, Shinjiro finally found the courage to confess his feelings to Oyu, and the two of them were married.

* * *

Sorry this chapter covers a long period of time in a relatively short span. I didn't really have Shinjiro's interactions with Itachi over 7 years really planned out, and some of what happens is already told in detail in Sweet and Naive and The Second Survivor, so I didn't see any reason to repeat it beyond an overview. The next chapter will be more interesting though!


	4. Shinjiro, Sasuke, and Sakura

Shinjiro was sitting at the front desk one day when he felt the auras of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura coming toward the inn. Just as he was debating whether to go out to meet them, he heard Sakura's voice.

"Ah, here it is. Hinata told me that she and Naruto had a really nice time staying here on the honeymoon that Shikamaru gave them as a wedding gift."

"I see." Sasuke replied, "It's a little farther removed from the village than I thought it would be."

Having heard them talking, Shinjiro came to the entrance, "Sakura-han, Sasuke-han, welcome! I wasn't expecting that the two of you would show up here." He said with a smile.

Sakura smiled, "Shinjiro-san! I forgot that this place was owned by your shishou!"

"Yes." Shinjiro said with a smile, "Although actually, he's my father-in-law now. Oyu-chan and I got married last year. We're actually going to have a baby soon."

"Oh! Really?" Sakura asked with interest, "Sasuke-kun and I just got married ourselves! Hinata recommended this place to us. Speaking of which, you were right, she is pregnant. But how did you realize that when they were only here for a week?"

"It doesn't take long after a baby is conceived for a new chakra signature to form within the mother's body." Shinjiro explained, "My Shinjitsugan can detect that. However, at that time, the spark is so faint that no other information can be derived."

"Oh..." Sakura said with amazement. "I wonder if the Byakugan can do that too?"

"In theory, but it's something that's a bit difficult to see." Shinjiro told her, "In the case of the Shinjitsugan, it's more of a sense that there's a second chakra signature present, separate from that of the mother. Unlike the Byakugan, the Shinjitsugan also has some passive abilities."

"Amazing..." Sakura said.

Shinjiro smiled a bit, "At any rate, it's fortunate that you're here. I have something that I believe I should give to you, Sasuke-han."

Sasuke looked confused, but he and Sakura nonetheless followed Shinjiro into the inn, where he led them into the living space at the back. "Where is Amai-san?" Sakura asked. She had noticed the tea shop that was now part of the resort, but had not been the last time she was here.

"Ah, Amai-san is catering an event for a friend who lives closer to the center of the village tonight." Shinjiro replied, "She took the twins with her. I don't think they'll be back until sometime tomorrow."

"That's too bad." Sakura replied, "I was hoping to be able to see them, since she was still pregnant when I last saw her. Unfortunately, we have to leave first thing in the morning."

"So this was the place that Amai planned to come to when she found out she was pregnant." Sasuke mused.

"Eh? You knew about that? I mean, you've met Amai-san?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Yeah. Shortly after Itachi died, I went to the Land of Medicine to find out the truth. I happened to meet her while I was there." Sasuke said.

"Speaking of Itachi-han, here's what I wanted to give you." Shinjiro said while opening a box. The inside of the box was filled with numerous scrolls."

"What are these?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"Mission reports." Shinjiro replied, "During the time that I was treating him, I insisted to Itachi-han that he should write proper mission reports as proof of his loyalty to Konoha. They were meant to be a failsafe after his death."

"A failsafe?" Sasuke asked.

"In the event that he was unable to survive against his illness long enough for you to gain the strength you would need to protect yourself from Shimura Danzo, the scrolls would serve to prove that he had been working on Konoha's behalf the entire time and serve as a deterrent against any plans to harm you that Danzo might've had." Shinjiro said, "The information is useless now, of course, and I understand that his reputation has already been restored by Naruto-han, but these still serve as further proof, and I certainly have no reason for keeping them here."

"There's so many..." Sakura mused.

"Yes." Shinjiro said with a nod, "This is seven years worth of mission reports. I began treating him when I was eleven-years-old."

"How did that even happen, anyway?" Sakura asked curiously. A hint of sadness clouded Shinjiro's eyes as he looked down.

"I was once a member of Bright Lightning... one of the youngest members, actually. I was never a combatant in the Coliseum; Oyashiro En used me when he was conducting business, because of the nature of my visual prowess. Still, when the others escaped, they took pity on me and brought me with them. The day before we were supposed to meet with ninja from Kirigakure regarding the mission that would be our end, Kirigakure sent ANBU to assassinate me, since I would be able to warn my comrades of their intentions. At that time, Itachi-han saved my life by protecting me from them, but before he had shown up, I suffered severe injuries and by the time I came to, my comrades were already..." Sakura gasped as Shinjiro closed his eyes and shook his head before looking up at Sasuke, "You have my thanks, Sasuke-han. You saved Chino-neesan and Fuushin-niisan from themselves."

"You knew about all of that?" Sasuke asked, but Shinjiro shook his head.

"Not until after the fact." He replied, "They didn't try to involve me because they knew that I wouldn't want any part of it, and because I already have my own family now. They came by and told me after the fact." He sighed, "If I had encountered the exploding humans myself, I probably would've recognized Chino-neesan's chakra, which is probably why they avoided Yugakure itself." A frustrated expression crossed his face, "I would've liked to have done something about Dark Lightning, but I'm not a skilled combatant. The Mayonaka Clan never was really known for combat prowess."

"So that's why you became a medical ninja?" Sakura guessed.

"Yes." Shinjiro said with a nod, "I am a bit discontented by Yugakure's excessive neutrality, but... There are also dangers involved with having a Kekkei Genkai. By using my abilities in medicine and exercising discretion in what I say to other people regarding the things that I can sense about them, I'm able to avoid at least some of that."

巴

"It's weird how small the world can be sometimes..." Sakura remarked as she prepared to go to bed with Sasuke that night, "I mean, who would've thought that the people you recently helped turn over a new leaf would be friends of the doctor who treated your brother, who is also a friend of a widow that Hinata, Ino, and I escorted when she was pregnant after the war?"

"I know what you mean." Sasuke said with a nod, "A while back, I met a man who had encountered my brother while he was in the Akatsuki. He and his older brother had been targeting Itachi and Kisame, but when they ultimately failed, Itachi spared his life without Kisame realizing it. He went on to marry a woman who had once encountered Sasori and Deidara and somehow got along with them because she was a ceramic artist, and oddly enough, his younger brothers were playing with paper shuriken."

"You're kidding." Sakura said in amazement, "I wonder if all these things are merely coincidence or simply the result of people connecting with others?"

"Chakra connects all of us to each other. It connects our hearts. That was what the Sage of Six Paths taught to his students of Ninshu." Sasuke replied, his gaze thoughtful, "In the past, I rejected that notion, but Naruto taught me that it really is the right way."

Sakura smiled softly before leaning up to kiss Sasuke, but she stopped short at the sound of a blood-curdling scream. "That sounded like Oyu-san!" She exclaimed. Without a word, Sasuke grabbed his sword and opened the balcony to the window to their room, jumping out of it to go investigate with Sakura immediately following him. What they found when they arrived in the women's bath where the scream had come from shocked them.

Shinjiro's wife, Oyu, was being held captive by a group of men, two of them gripping her arms as another held a kunai to her neck. Sakura's eyes were instantly drawn to the bleeding wound in the young woman's swollen abdomen.

"Please, let her go!" Shinjiro pleaded, "Our child...!"

The man holding the kunai sneered at Shinjiro. "Thanks to you, not a single inn in Yugakure will let us stay. So you're going to pay for sticking your nose in our business."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes and crouched. In an instant, he activated his Rinnegan and switched places with Oyu, quickly drawing his sword and attacking the group of men. Sakura has anticipated this the instant that she saw him crouch and caught the injured mother-to-be, gently lying her back on the ground. "Shinjiro-san, lend me a hand!" She urged, "We're going to have to perform an emergency Caesarean in order to save the baby!"

Shinjiro nodded and quickly rushed to Sakura's side as she began to work. "What do you need me to do?"

"For now, just keep an eye on them with your Shinjitsugan." Sakura told him. Shinjiro nodded, watching carefully and attempting to comfort his wife as Sakura quickly made the incision using a chakra scalpel. "How far along was she?" She asked Shinjiro as she worked.

"The baby was due in two weeks." Shinjiro answered.

"Good. That increases the chances of survival." Sakura replied. As quickly and carefully as she could, the pink-haired kunoichi lifted the infant from within Oyu and severed the umbilical cord. When the child made no sound and took no breaths, Sakura quickly pressed a pair of fingers against the baby girl's neck before her eyes widened in horror. "There's no pulse!" She exclaimed.

"There's still chakra though!" Shinjiro exclaimed, "I can see it! There's still time."

Sakura nodded and looked over at Sasuke, who had already finished subduing the assailants, "Sasuke-kun! We have to resuscitate the baby! I need you to use Raiton to shock her! It needs to be a very small jolt!"

Sasuke nodded and swiftly moved beside Sakura, who gently laid the unmoving infant on the ground so that Sasuke could do as she had instructed. Following what Sakura told him, Sasuke summoned a small charge of lightning into his palm and pressed it to the baby's chest. The baby girl jolted, and then began to cry, causing all of them to sigh with relief. Sakura carefully scooped the wailing child into her arms and looked at Shinjiro, "Can you heal Oyu-san while I finish up with the baby?"

Shinjiro nodded, his relief obvious. "Of course."

巴

A while later, Oyu was lying on the ground, being supported by her husband as she held their newborn baby girl in her arms. Shinjiro's eyes glistened with tears as he looked up at the Uchiha Couple, "Sakura-han, Sasuke-han, thank you. You saved them both."

"Think nothing of it." Sakura said with a wave of her hands, "We would never turn our backs on a situation like this."

"Besides, you did a lot for my brother." Sasuke agreed.

"By the way, what are you going to name her?" Sakura asked curiously.

Shinjiro shared a look with his wife, and then smiled up at them, "With your permission, Sakura-han, we would like to name her Haru, after the maiden name of the woman who saved her from dying in the womb."

Sakura's eyes widened in shock, "But... I don't think I did anything that you couldn't have done... and besides, Sasuke-kun played a part as well."

"I know." Shinjiro said with a nod, "That's why we want you both to be her godparents. As for your first statement, no, I couldn't have saved them. In that moment, my hands would not have been steady enough to do what needed to be done, and I never would've thought about having Sasuke-han resuscitate Haru using Raiton."

Sasuke placed his hand on Sakura's shoulder, giving her a gentle smile. She smiled back and then looked at the young couple, "We would be honored."

"Thank you." Shinjiro said before turning back to his wife and child and stroking Oyu's hair, "Otousan and I will bring them inside to rest and handle the cleanup out here. You two should go ahead and get some rest of your own."

"Thanks. I need to clean up myself, actually." Sakura said, "Delivering babies is always messy, but not usually _this _messy, and I usually have something covering my clothes." Shinjiro chuckled awkwardly, feeling sorry for Sakura for the ordeal of having to get all of that blood out of her clothing.

巴

When Sakura had finished cleaning herself up in the bathroom, she came back into the bedroom of hers and Sasuke's room, where he was already waiting for her. "Hey, Sasuke-kun?" She began while sitting down beside him on the futons.

"Yeah?" Sasuke said as he looked up at her.

"Do you... want to have a baby?"

Sasuke's visible eye widened incrementally, but then he smiled softly at his wife.


	5. The Uchiha Family

Ten months later, Sasuke and Sakura returned to Byoukan with their newborn daughter Sarada in their arms. They had arranged to meet Naruto and Hinata, who were bringing their own infant along as well. In light of being the godparents of both Naruto and Hinata's child and Haru, and with Karin, who was also from the Uzumaki Clan, being Sarada's godmother, there was something that Sasuke wanted to do.

To their surprise, they entered the inn to find Shinjiro and Oyu desperately trying to console a wailing Haru.

"Shinjiro-kun, what's wrong with her?!" Oyu asked her husband anxiously.

"I don't know." Shinjiro said with concern, "She's confused by something, but I don't know what..." At that moment, he appeared to notice Sakura and Sasuke's presence and turned to look at them, "Sakura-han! Sasuke-han!" His Shinjitsugan still active from trying to examine Haru, his eyes widened as he looked at Sasuke and he seemed to realize something. "Now I understand!" He turned and scooped up his child, holding her close and rubbing her back. "Shh... It's okay Haru... You don't need to be scared." Haru sniffled. She wasn't looking at Shinjiro, but she still seemed to be paying attention to him. "I promise I'm your real Papa." He assured her, "But this person helped you once, and that's why he feels the same." At Haru's confused expression, he rubbed her head, "Well, it's hard to understand right now. Just trust me, okay?" Haru sniffled, but nodded. Shinjiro turned back to Sakura and Sasuke, "Sorry about that."

"No, it's fine, but what just happened?" Sakura asked in confusion, absently relieved that Sarada had not been woken by this commotion.

Shinjiro smiled a bit sadly, "Remember how Haru's umbilical cord was damaged on the night of her birth, and she nearly died as a result?"

"Of course." Sakura said with a nod.

"It wasn't until a bit later that I realized the event had resulted in her being born blind. I know a lot about treating the eyes, but I don't know what the correct course of action to correct it is, if there is one. Yugakure doesn't really have the facilities for that..." The other doctor explained.

"Why not take her to Konoha?" Sakura asked, and Shinjiro smiled wryly.

"I actually prefer to avoid the Five Great Shinobi Villages. I only traveled to Konoha during the war because Itachi-han asked me to meet up with his student, Aiko-han. Besides, most of the residents were away from the village at that time, and I left once Lady Tsunade arrived to take charge of the hospital."

"Now that I think of it, how did you guys even get into the underground room to escape from the Infinite Tsukuyomi?" Sasuke asked, "The entrance was sealed."

"Ah, Itachi-han taught Aiko-han how to undo the seal." Shinjiro said, "She was quite reliable that day. At any rate, it seems that, in order to compensate for her blindness, Haru awakened her Shinjitsugan at an unprecedented age. I'm guessing that she instinctively directed chakra to her eyes in an attempt to make them work. As a result, she can at least see living things and natural obstacles."

"What does that have to do with why she was crying?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Users of the Shinjitsugan can detect familial bonds through similarities in chakra." Shinjiro explained, "Haru at least understands the bond between parent and child and between siblings. However, she's a little different from the average person. Whether because of the danger that she was in or simply because she was a newborn, or perhaps even because she was born two weeks early, Haru absorbed the lightning chakra that Sasuke-han used to revive her and adapted it as part of her own. As a result, instead of half of her chakra coming from me and the other half coming from her mother, Haru's chakra comes from three people. This confused her because, as far as she could tell, we were _both_ her father, and that freaked her out."

"I didn't even know something like that was possible." Sakura said in amazement.

"Neither did I." Shinjiro admitted with a shrug. "I didn't realize it until after you left, when I was performing a checkup on her."

At that moment, a small voice called, "Uncle Shinjiro!"

"We're home!" Chimed another voice, and two small children ran into the entrance, stopping short when they noticed Sasuke and Sakura. Sasuke's eyes widened as he took in their appearance. At first glance, they looked like identical twins, but the bow in one child's hair and the pants beneath the other's short kimono indicated that they were actually fraternal. That wasn't what surprised him though: it was that the two children were the spitting image of Itachi when he had been about their age. The only easily distinguishable differences were their slightly paler skin and their hair, which was somewhere between black and brown, rather than the grayish-black that Itachi's had been.

"Tamana! Dango!" Came a voice that both Sakura and Sasuke recognized, "Please don't rush off like that!" The woman who came in behind the children was one that neither Sasuke nor Sakura had seen in nearly five years. Amai, a young woman—well, actually five years older than either of them—whom Sasuke had met on a journey to the Land of Medicine to learn the truth of his brother's past and whom Sakura—along with Hinata and Ino—had been assigned to escort from the Land of Honey here to Byoukan shortly after the war. She stopped short upon seeing them, her eyes widening in surprise. "Sasuke-kun!" She exclaimed in surprise. She followed his gaze, which was still fixated on the twins, "Um..." Before she could attempt to explain, the little girl turned around and looked up at her.

"Mama, who is this?" She asked innocently.

Amai's eyes flitted from her daughter's face back to Sasuke, who looked like he didn't know how to react, and she sighed before kneeling down to answer her daughter. "Tamana, Dango, this is your uncle, Uchiha Sasuke."

"Uncle?" Tamana asked in confusion.

"Yes," Amai replied with a nod, "He's your father's younger brother."

"Really?" Tamana asked with wide eyes. Her brother seemed equally surprised.

"Mm-hm."

Tamana looked at Sasuke for a moment and then turned back to her mother, "Hey Mama, I've been wondering about this for a while, but... where is Papa? Why isn't he here with us? I hear you talk about him, but we've never met him. I don't even know what he looks like."

Amai's eyes widened, and then she sighed softly, "I'm afraid your father is gone, Tamana..."

"Gone?" She echoed, "Gone where?"

"To another world... one that we cannot follow him to." Her mother answered, trying to keep the explanation as simple as possible.

"Why did he leave?" Tamana asked, tears filling her eyes with an expression that said she thought perhaps he'd abandoned them.

"It's not that he wanted to, Sweetheart." Amai assured her, "But your father... he was very sick... and one day, before you two were born, his body was no longer able to keep working... when a person dies, their body stays in this world, but their heart goes to another one, and we cannot follow them until it is our time."

"Oh..." Tamana looked down, the tears threatening to spill over now.

"Tamana?" Amai asked in concern.

"I wish he were still here!" The little girl exclaimed as the tears began to flow down her cheeks, "Whenever you talk about him, I can tell that you really loved him, but we never got to meet him. We don't even know what he looks like!"

"Tamana..." Amai replied softly, her expression laced with sorrow. Tamana opened her eyes and looked at her mother, allowing her to see the ruby red orbs within. Amai gasped, but didn't have time to react before Tamana collapsed in her arms.

"Is she all right?" Sakura asked with concern.

"Yes..." Amai replied as she shifted her daughter in her arms, "She awakened her Sharingan, which quickly depleted her chakra..." A bittersweet smile crossed her face, "Really... she's such a sensitive child..." She looked over at Dango, who had been quiet the whole time, "What about you, Dango? Are you okay?"

"Yes." Dango replied, "Unlike Tamana, I already realized the reason for Otousan's absence."

Amai sighed in bittersweet amusement, reaching forward and placing her hand on her son's head. "You really are your father's children." She turned her attention to Sasuke, who by this point, had regained some degree of composure, "I'll explain everything properly to you in a moment. First let me take Tamana to our room to rest."

Sasuke nodded mutely and Amai carried Tamana into the back part of the inn with Dango following. After tucking Tamana in and asking Dango to watch over her, she returned to the entrance with a wry smile. "They're like two sides of the same coin. They remind me so much of him..." She looked down, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before... at the time... I wasn't sure how you would react..."

Sasuke's eyes widened, and then his gaze softened in understanding, "I can't blame you for that."

Amai looked over at Sakura, "Sakura-chan, you don't seem too surprised..."

"To be honest, I already suspected it." Sakura told her, "For one thing, you sent your request for an escort to Konoha by _crow." _

Amai blushed in embarrassment, "...I didn't have any other means of sending a message." She admitted, "I only learned how to summon crows in case I ever had an urgent need to get in touch with..."

Sakura nodded in understanding, "At any rate, there were other indications. For example, you mentioned that your husband had been terminally ill, and that you had known Itachi."

Now Amai's ears burned with embarrassment, "Clearly I was never meant to be a shinobi..."

"Don't worry about it." Sakura said with a wave of her hand, "Naruto can't lie either. The last time he was sent on an infiltration mission, we had to make him think that the situation was real, or he would've blown his cover wide open." Amai sweat-dropped at this statement and Sakura continued, "I do have a question though... You and Itachi... how exactly did that happen?"

Amai blushed and looked down, "It began when he first came to my village to obtain medicine. The medicine he needed could only be obtained there, and it took a week to prepare. During that time, he would come to my cafe for lunch. That was his hobby you know, visiting traditional cafes like mine. At that time... I owed a large sum of money to the Sendou Clan."

"The Sendou?" Sakura asked.

"A clan of drug dealers in Howling Wolf Village that tend to think that they can do whatever they want." Sasuke explained, and Amai nodded.

"Yes. My parents had been addicted to Sengenzai, and when they died, I was left with their debt." She explained, "It so happened that one day, while Itachi-kun was having lunch in my store that the Sendou came in, and their clan head became angry with me for having led Itachi-kun to the proper pharmacist instead of to them. Itachi-kun stood up for me and defended me. That was something nobody in my village was willing to do, except for the Kodon brothers, who made Itachi-kun's medicine, but they had many problems with the Sendou themselves. Itachi-kun began visiting my store monthly after that, to try and deter them. One evening, he showed up just as I was about to close, so I made him dinner. When he was about to leave, he suddenly collapsed with a fever. He was having an episode due to exhaustion from his previous mission. I couldn't let him leave like that, so I made him stay the night and looked after him. This resulted in me learning of his identity, but... I wasn't bothered by it. I had all but been abandoned by my village, but he stood up for me and protected me. So I judged him by the actions I had witnessed, not the reputation that he carried. After all, I... carried a guilt that was similar to his. We realized it that night, how similar we were. We were able to share each other's pain." She sighed at the memory, looking out of a window as she continued, "The following day, he defended me from the Sendou yet again and paid off my debt to them so that they wouldn't have a hold over me anymore, although he claimed it was just because I had helped him the night before."

"And then?" Sakura asked, obviously intrigued by the story.

"It was as I mentioned to you before." Amai told Sakura, "Itachi-kun had been in love once before, but he realized his feelings for that girl too late, although she at least died a happy death..." The young woman looked saddened by the thought of the pain Itachi had gone through, "It came to pass that the Sendou hired the Akatsuki to abduct me, because their bookkeeper was obsessed with the idea of marrying me. Itachi-kun and Kisame were given the mission because they knew where to find me. I didn't try to resist. I didn't want to cause him further pain... even so... I couldn't stop myself from confessing my love to him. Perhaps... perhaps that mission made him realize that he was in danger of repeating his mistake, because the next thing I knew... he was double-crossing the Sendou and proclaiming me to be his fiancé. Although he had been told to do whatever was necessary to make the Sendou back off, because the Akatsuki's leader apparently did not approve of the Sendou's motives, he nonetheless formerly proposed to me the following day. At the time, we were only sixteen, so we originally planned to wait until we were twenty, provided he lived that long." She shrugged her shoulders, "Various things happened and we got married a little sooner than we had planned. Still, it wasn't until after my twentieth birthday that we began trying to have children, but... I didn't become pregnant with the twins until that final day..." She smiled bittersweetly, "They remind me so much of him... I treasure them more than anything... I just wish that... he had had the chance to meet them." She walked forward and stroked Sarada's hair, "And this little one too. He would be so happy to see the future of the clan like this, even though he never thought he'd be a part of it."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"It wasn't as if Itachi-kun was opposed to being a father. I'm certain that he would've loved the twins as much as I do. However, he always worried about the prospect of leaving me behind to raise a child with the Sharingan on my own." Amai explained. She smiled awkwardly, "I can't deny his reasons for that... Now that Tamana's has awakened, it will be too dangerous to remain in Yugakure. It will probably be best for us to go to Konoha, although I'm not certain how well we'll be received."

"You don't need to worry about that." Sakura said with a smile, "Naruto made sure the whole village knew who Itachi really was. He's not the kind of guy who would ever let a comrade's name be permanently stained."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, "Even so, I'll send a message to Kakashi and ask for his advice."

Amai nodded and then looked at Sakura, "Um... Is it all right if I hold her?"

"Oh! Of course!" Sakura said with a smile, carefully passing the sleeping newborn into the waiting arms of her aunt.

Amai smiled softly at the infant, "This was what he dreamed of. That you would have a happy future..."

Sasuke's expression softened when he heard that, "You really loved my brother, didn't you, Neesan?"

Amai looked up in surprise, but smiled warmly at her brother-in-law. "Yes. I loved him very deeply... They were short, but... the years that we had together... were the best years of my life, although I've enjoyed a different kind of happiness since the twins were born. Itachi-kun... was the one who saved me... I couldn't save him, but... I hope I was able to at least ease his pain."

巴

It was awhile later when Naruto and Hinata finally arrived with their own child in tow. The infant Boruto was somehow a mere four days older than Sarada, despite the fact that Hinata had already been pregnant when Sasuke and Sakura had gotten married. Shinjiro was tending the front desk when the young family arrived.

"Ah, Naruto-han! Hinata-han! It's good to see you again!"

"Yeah, thanks!" Naruto said with a nod. "Where are Sasuke and Sakura-chan?"

"Ah, they're in the kitchen with Oyu-chan. I'll lead you there." Shinjiro replied before he noticed two other people standing behind them, a baby who looked to be a few months older than Sarada and Boruto in the woman's arms. "Who is this?" He asked. He might have assumed them to simply be customers if not for the Konoha headband that the man was wearing.

"Ah, this is Yamanaka Sai and Yamanaka Ino and their son, Inojin." Naruto told them, "Sasuke wanted Sai's help with something, and Sakura is Ino's best friend, so they came along with us."

"Ah, I see." Shinjiro said with a nod, "Well then, please follow me, everyone." He led the two families to the kitchen, where Sakura was chatting with Amai and Oyu, Haru was playing with a number of flowers on the floor in front of her, the now conscious Tamana was stuffing her face with onigiri, Dango was curiously observing Sarada, and Sasuke was watching the four children with a soft smile.

"Sakura-san, Sasuke-kun, it's been so long." Hinata said with a smile as she walked into the room, although Ino abruptly brushed past her.

"Sakura!" The blonde exclaimed as she leapt forward to embrace her best friend, "You've been gone way too long!"

"Lower your voice, Ino." Sakura said with a sweat-drop, "You'll startle Sarada. Besides, it hasn't even been a year."

"We've both had _kids_ since then!" Ino pointed out.

"They're still infants." Sakura deadpanned.

Suddenly Ino seemed to take notice of Amai, "Oh! Amai-san! I didn't expect to see you! Are you still living here?"

"Yes." Amai said with a smile, "I run the tea shop attached to this place."

"Oh, are those your little ones?" Ino asked with interest, "They're so cute...! Huh?" Suddenly she seemed to become aware of something, "They look a little like Sasuke-kun..." Having not expected such a statement, little Tamana choked on her food, and her mother immediately rushed over to help her clear her windpipe.

"Be careful, Tamana." Amai told her gently, "I know that you're hungry, but don't eat so fast. It's not good for you. Here. Drink some of your juice."

Tamana nodded and quickly downed some of her juice in order to regain control of her diaphragm and then looked at her mother, "Sorry Mama. I was just surprised."

"Mm. Well I think we've had _enough_ surprises today, don't you?" Amai asked. Tamana nodded and returned to her rice balls, this time eating at a slower pace.

Sakura laughed awkwardly and looked at Ino, "Actually Ino, Amai-san is mine and Sasuke-kun's sister-in-law. The twins' father was Itachi."

The room went dead silent for a moment before Naruto exclaimed, "Ehhh?!"

"Oh." Sai began with interest, "I wouldn't have thought that–" Suddenly Sakura clamped her hand over his mouth and leveled him with a deadly glare.

"If you say anything crude about this, I am going to take your son, hand him to whoever is closest, and then slug you." She warned.

Sai smiled but sweat-dropped nonetheless and nodded in confirmation.

"Eh. So these kids are Itachi's then?" Naruto asked with interest as he looked at the twins before grinning at Sasuke, "Bet that makes you pretty happy, huh Sasuke?"

"Hm." Was all that Sasuke said, but he and Naruto knew each other well enough by now that he didn't need to say anything more. Abruptly, the dark-haired man looked down as he felt someone tugging on his leg and found Haru standing there. "What is it, Haru?"

Haru continued to cling to Sasuke's pant leg with one hand and pointed to Naruto with her other, "Brother!" She exclaimed.

"Huh?" Sasuke said in confusion.

"Oh, I get it..." Sakura said after a moment, "Haru-chan must think that you and Naruto are brothers because of the chakra that you both received from the Sage of Six Paths."

"I think Sakura-han is right." Shinjiro said with a nod, "Although I know a bit about the whole thing with the Sage's sons, neither of you had chakra that was exactly the same as what theirs would've been. However, the chakra you were endowed with during the war does give you the feeling of being brothers."

Sasuke nodded in understanding.

"Aunt!" Haru exclaimed while pointing at Hinata, causing the young woman to blush.

"Eh?! Now where did _that _come from?" Sakura wondered.

Haru toddled over to Naruto and pointed at Boruto, "Child!" She pointed at Naruto again, "Papa!" She pointed back at Hinata, "Mama...?" Suddenly she looked very confused by this contradiction.

Naruto's eyes suddenly lit up in understanding, "Wait, I get it!" He exclaimed, "Hinata, you were endowed with Hamura's chakra when we were on the mission to the moon! She's getting thrown off by that."

"Oh, that makes sense." Hinata said, relaxing in relief and nodding.

"Is there a way to explain all of this to her, Shinjiro?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm afraid not yet there isn't." Shinjiro said with an awkward smile, "She's too young to understand it right now. I'll have to make things clear to her once she's a little older. As it is, she still doesn't really understand the connection between you and her. I apologize in advance for anything strange that she may blurt out." He walked over to Haru and knelt in front of her, "Haru, enough wandering around. You might run into something. Go back to playing with your flowers."

Haru sang out her confirmation cheerfully and walked back over to the pile of flowers that she'd been playing with before.

"What's the thing with her and flowers?" Sakura asked.

"Plants aren't like people." Shinjiro explained, "They don't have individual chakra signatures. However, every species does have a chakra that is unique from all other types of plants. Haru can sense that difference, so she likes sorting flowers based on the feelings she gets from their chakra."

"Eh..." Ino said with interest.

A few minutes later, despite what her father had told her, Haru stood up and toddled over to Sakura with a bundle of flowers in her arms. She held them up to the pink-haired woman with an earnest expression. "I'll give you these." She said in her infantile speech.

Sakura accepted the bundle and smiled, "They're beautiful."

"They suit you perfectly." Ino said in amazement. She watched as Haru also offered flowers to Hinata and then to her, smiling as she took them. "Blind or not, she has a real talent for floral arrangements. She hasn't learned how arrange them in the most pleasing way yet, but it's like these bouquets are perfectly suited to the people that she made them for."

"Haru makes her bouquets by matching the feelings she gets from the chakra of the flowers to the personality or sometimes even the mood of the person she intends them for." Shinjiro explained.

"I plan to teach her how to arrange them properly when she's a little bit older." Oyu added, "But for right now, I've just been reordering them myself and giving them to our guests. It's made the inn quite popular lately."

"That's amazing." Sakura said.

"She's advancing incredibly fast." Shinjiro said with a note of pride in his voice, "I'm certain she'll be capable of more with the Shinjitsugan than I ever was."

At that moment, Sasuke noticed Haru swaying and darted forward to catch the child just as she passed out, preventing her from hitting the ground.

"What happened?!" Sakura asked in alarm.

Shinjiro sighed, "That would be the downside to her precocious awakening. Since she can't see without it, Haru is unable to deactivate her Shinjitsugan, or more accurately, she doesn't know how to. Unfortunately, this puts a constant strain on her chakra. Her reserves are larger than an ordinary child her age, which is partially due to the Mayonaka Clan's heritage, but she can still only go about two hours before she passes out, unless she eats a food pill to restore her reserves."

"Just how large are her reserves for that to work?" Sakura asked incredulously.

"The Mayonaka Clan descended from the Uzumaki and Hyuuga Clans." Shinjiro explained, "When a man from the Hyuuga married a woman from the Uzumaki Clan who possessed the ability known as the Mind's Eye of Kagura, their abilities merged to create the Shinjitsugan. The Uzumaki have ridiculously high reserves to begin with, and the Hyuuga aren't exactly lacking either in that regard. Besides, the Byakugan takes significantly less chakra than the Sharingan, which is why members of the Hyuuga can fight for hours with it active. The Shinjitsugan is the same."

"Eh? The Sharingan takes more?" Sakura asked in confusion, "Why is that?"

"It's probably because, contrary to popular belief, the Sharingan is related to the Rinnegan, not the Byakugan. Although they come from the same clan originally, the Rinnegan and Byakugan are unrelated to one another in that respect." Shinjiro explained, "You can think of the Sharingan as something like an incomplete version of the Rinnegan. That's why Sasuke-han is able to use his Rinnegan even when he doesn't have enough chakra for his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. As for the Mangekyou itself... I'm not certain for what reason it places such a strain on the body and the chakra reserves, but I suspect it has something to do with dilution of the bloodline. All of those with Kekkei Genkai are descendants of Otsutsuki Kaguya, who technically wasn't human, so it stands to reason that the more diluted the bloodline becomes, the more difficult visual prowess comes to be to maintain. That's probably the reason that clans like the Hyuuga and my own Mayonaka Clan developed a habit of only marrying within the clan, although this created other problems."

"Other problems?" Sakura asked.

"I can't be certain, but... I believe that the cause of Itachi-han's illness was genetic defects resulting from efforts to maintain purity in the bloodline and, in his case, especially the head family." Shinjiro told her, "I've already checked the twins carefully, and neither of them seem like they'll be prone to it."

"What exactly was wrong with my brother anyway?" Sasuke asked, realizing that he had never known the exact cause of Itachi's illness.

"His chakra network was placing strain on his vascular system, resulting in hemorrhaging that would occur when he used too much." The young doctor told him, "At first, it was just in smaller blood vessels, such as those around his eyes, but over time, it began to damage larger vessels as well. This, in turn, would cause damage to his internal organs. To be honest, I'm not sure if he eventually died from internal bleeding or organ failure."

Sasuke appeared troubled by this, but to his surprise, Amai walked over to him and gently hugged him. "It wasn't your fault." She said in a voice that was gentle, comforting, and yet firm, all at the same time, "Itachi-kun knew that freeing you from Orochimaru's curse mark would require using his Susano'o, and that using the Susano'o would put too great of a strain on his body for him to survive. There are many people who could be blamed for what happened to him... Orochimaru... Shimura Danzou... but not you. _Never_ you. His illness was terminal. If it was his destiny to die, then he wanted it to come from protecting you."

Sasuke didn't seem to know how to react, but his gaze was sad. "How can you be so accepting of it?" He asked.

"I wasn't, at first." Amai admitted, "When he first left this world, I was angry at a lot of people... But I was _never_ angry at you." She smiled softly, "The reason for that... was because I understood. I told you before, didn't I? That I once had a younger sister? I loved her the same way that Itachi-kun loved you. If I could've died in her place, I would've done it, so I understood how he felt." A sadness entered her eyes as she continued, "However... even though we shared each other's pain, we had separate destinies. His destiny was to die for the sake of the younger brother he loved. My destiny was to survive..." She pulled away from Sasuke and looked toward the twins with a smile, "...And raise the children that he gave to me."

"Mama, is the bond between siblings really that strong?" Tamana asked as she walked over to her mother, having finished her food.

Amai smiled as she knelt down to Tamana's level, "It is Tamana." As Dango walked over to join them, she placed a hand on each child's shoulder, "The bond between siblings is something so powerful that it can even transcend time. I think that's why your father gave me two children, in order to give the both of you something incredibly precious." The twins seemed to be in awe of this statement as Tamana's hand instinctively clasped Dango's and Amai leaned forward so that their foreheads were touching, "I know you wish that he could still be here. So do I. But even if he's not here physically, he's here with us. He lives on inside of you two. He is a part of you, just like I am, so whenever you miss him, just look at each other... and know that he is right by your side."

* * *

I love being able to show Itachi's family interacting freely with Sasuke. I can't do a whole lot with Sarada because she and Boruto have been asleep the whole time, which is what newborns tend to do. XD Inojin is at least awake, but he can't talk yet or anything and Sai is keeping him content... and generally keeping his thoughts to himself to avoid ticking off Sakura, who is still hormonal from being pregnant with Sarada.

Also, what Haru says to Sakura is actually not that well-formed. What she actually says in Japanese is "Kore ageru." Which is not a full sentence, but that's how toddlers speak in Japanese. She's a little precocious in terms of walking abilities.

As for Tamana, the reason why she was stuffing her face with onigiri was because the chakra depletion from awakening her Sharingan left her feeling extremely hungry.

As Amai says, Tamana and Dango are like two sides of the same coin. They are both like Itachi, but in different ways. Tamana is generally the more sensitive of the two while Dango is the more perceptive, although both are intelligent. Tamana also possesses less control over her emotions than Dango (and Itachi at that age), which could be something she got from Amai, or simply because she is a girl. She is also the more naive of the two, which she almost certainly gets from Amai, since Itachi often teased her about the meaning of her name. That's not to say that Dango is lacking in naivety. He's sharper than the average four-year-old, but still views the world in a childish manner. He is considerably more naive than Itachi was at their age, since Itachi had been exposed to the horrors of the Third Shinobi War while Dango and Tamana have essentially never witnessed any kind of major conflict or been exposed to danger. This is why, while Itachi was aware of what death was by the age of four, Amai had to explain it to Tamana. Dango had already formed his own understanding of it simply because Byoukan also serves as a medical clinic (the name itself is a portmanteau of "byouin" meaning "hospital" and "ryokan", a traditional Japanese Inn that sometimes includes a hot spring).


	6. Tales of the Past

"So why did you call all of us out here anyway, Sasuke?" Naruto asked a little while later, after the children had all gone to bed.

"You know the tri-clan agreement between the Yamanaka, the Akimichi, and the Nara?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course. I think nearly everyone knows about that." Shinjiro replied.

"I want to form a similar pact between our clans." Sasuke explained, "Shinjiro, you were there for my brother when he had nobody else. You even collected mission reports for him. And Sakura and I were here when Haru was born. Naruto and I are–in a manner of speaking–brothers, and Karin, who is also from the Uzumaki Clan delivered Sarada. It won't be like the Ino-Shika-Cho agreement. Our children won't necessarily be teammates. However, our clans are small, and in danger of disappearing. That's why I would like for us to promise, here and now, that if anything happens to one of us, the others will look out for our families and the wellbeing of our children." He turned and looked at Amai, "Neesan, you are technically the head of the Uchiha until Dango comes of age. Itachi was the first born, after all. What do you think?"

Amai smiled, pleased to be acknowledged by Sasuke even though she really didn't care who the head of the clan was. "I think it's a good idea. Isolation and hatred are what led to our clans becoming the way they are, so I believe that only friendship and love can lead to restoration."

"What do you mean by 'clans'?" Sakura asked in confusion, "I know what you're talking about with the Uchiha of course, but..."

"The Uzumaki Clan originally resided in a village known as Uzushiogakure." Amai replied, "But during the Second or Third Ninja War, I'm not sure which, their village was destroyed due to fear of their powerful hiden fuinjutsu, and as a result, most of them were scattered across the continent, forced to take residence wherever they could. Although they did not expressly possess Kekkei Genkai, they had many powerful and rare abilities that led to them being taken advantage of. Their clan did have a pact of friendship with the Senju and Konohagakure in general, but... they were too far removed from the Land of Fire for Konoha to be able to help them when they were attacked."

"My own clan's history is similar." Shinjiro said with a nod, "During the Era of Warring States, our skills in perception were valued, but also feared. To avoid the scenario of people using us and then casting us aside, we pledged our loyalty to the Royal Family of Roran, working as both advisors to them and as the city's main military force. However, in the period between the Second and Third Shinobi Wars, a stranger appeared in the city and offered his aid to the queen. Whether through her own shrewdness or due to warnings of my clan, the queen realized that his true goal was to take possession of the Lei Line, so the man, a skilled puppet master, murdered the queen and took advantage of her ten-year-old daughter's grief and naïveté to gain control of the kingdom. Any attempts by my clan to warn the young queen of the danger to herself and the kingdom were thwarted and before long, the Mayonaka were forced to hide in the shadows of the city in order to survive. That's not to say we abandoned our duty, however. We recognized that the situation was far beyond what anyone in our clan could handle, and requested aid from the Hidden Leaf. Since the Yamanaka and the Mayonaka are sibling clans, we had allies there."

"Wait, sibling clans?" Ino said in surprise.

"I'll explain in a minute." Shinjiro told her. "The team of ANBU sent to deal with the matter included Naruto-han's father, who would later become the Fourth Hokage. He used a sealing jutsu to seal off the Lei Line and put an end to that man's plan. During this time, the now sixteen-year-old queen became aware of the situation and bravely lent her aid to the Konoha Shinobi to help them seal off the Lei Line. After that, the Mayonaka returned to our former position as the queen's advisors and the city's military, but..."

"But...?" Sakura prompted.

"...My clan was never particularly famous for our combat abilities." Shinjiro admitted, "A true master of the Shinjitsugan can use its abilities in a way that rivals that of the Sharingan, but... few people in my clan have ever achieved that kind of skill. With our numbers having been significantly cut down by the puppet master... when the city became engulfed in the Third War... there simply weren't enough of us to defend it. Some of us survived and became nomads in the Land of Wind with the other survivors of Roran, but... I don't know if there's anybody else left or not..."

"What do you mean?" Hinata asked.

"When I was a small child, I was abducted by a weapons dealer named Oyashiro En. He's a 'collector' of Kekkei Genkai, and he wanted me to assist him with his business transactions." Shinjiro said, "I honestly have no memory of my family, so I don't know if... there's anyone from the Mayonaka still living among the Roran Nomads or not. I don't particularly feel like wandering the desert at random to find out."

"I've met En..." Sasuke said, his expression somewhat darkened by the memory, "He told me that he's killed off entire clans save for one person to increase the rarity of their Kekkei Genkai."

"I don't know if that was the case with the Mayonaka or not. I never had the courage to ask." Shinjiro admitted, "But if you're referring to Chino-neesan, what En told you is only half true."

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked. Since Shinjiro had mentioned Oyashiro En, it didn't surprise him in the slightest that he also knew Chinoike Chino.

"Chino-neesan doesn't know this, but... Oyashiro En is actually her father..." Shinjiro said, his eyes downcast, "It is true that he killed off the Chinoike, or what was left of them, but only because they were doing so themselves anyway. Having lived too close to one another for too long... in-fighting and bloodshed broke out among the clan. When his wife, Chino-neesan's mother, got caught up in it and was killed, he ended up killing off everyone who was left. Everyone except for Chino-neesan, whom he actually loved very deeply. I was the only one who knew about their relation, because I could sense it, but I was threatened to never tell her about it. I never quite understood his reasons, but... I think that perhaps he hoped to drive her down a path that was different than his."

"You never told her, even after you and the others left?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"I wanted to, but... To be honest, Chino-neesan and I... there was a long period after Bright Lightning's destruction where she and I were not on good terms. She didn't exactly appreciate that I was helping your brother, a member of the Uchiha, even though she knew the reason why." The other man explained, "On the other hand, I told her that I wasn't interested in a blood feud that went back as far as the Era of Warring States. She visited me on her way to the Land of Water after the Exploding Humans incident and apologized to me. At that time, I tried to tell her, but she said that she was no longer interested in knowing about her past and only wanted to look forward to the future, so I respected her wishes."

"Hm." Sasuke said with a nod.

"What were you saying about us being sibling clans?" Ino asked again.

"Hm? Oh, right." Shinjiro said as he looked at her, "The father of the Mayonaka was the younger of twin boys. His older brother was Yamanaka. They had a sense of sibling rivalry, although there was never any animosity between them. That said, his desire to be able to compete with his younger brother's unique visual prowess led Yamanaka to create many of the Hiden jutsu that are still used by your clan today. The clans were on good terms, but they eventually came to fear that the centralization of power created from living in close proximity to each other would put both clans in danger, so they decided to live in separate regions. By the time Konohagakure was founded, the Mayonaka had already established themselves in Roran, so they didn't join their relatives in the Hidden Leaf. I guess after the city was destroyed, the two clans lost contact."

"Wow. You're more versed in my clan's history than I am." Ino said with surprise.

"You never were one for looking up random information anyway, Ino." Sakura pointed out.

Shinjiro laughed lightly, "Actually, when my friends and I escaped from En, I managed to bring with me some scrolls containing information on every Kekkei Genkai in existence, which I've used for my medical studies. However, even when I lived there, he allowed me to study my clan's history to my heart's content. He probably hoped that it would convince me that I was better off staying put."

"If you don't mind my asking..." Hinata began, "Why are you so avoidant of the Five Great Nations?"

"I'm guessing it's because of what happened to Bright Lightning?" Sakura asked, and Shinjiro looked down.

"That is part of it," He began, "That was during the time of the Fourth Mizukage, so at first, I simply dismissed it as being the result of having gotten involved with the Blood Mist. However... after I began treating Itachi-han, and I learned of his past, I became increasingly weary of the darkness within the Shinobi World and especially in the Five Great Nations. Truthfully, I'm not even all that fond of this village, but, this inn is our family's home, and it is for that reason that I stay."

Amai nodded, her gaze becoming distant, "Darkness exists everywhere in the world, whether you live in a Shinobi Village or not."

"What do you mean, Oneesan?" Sakura asked.

Amai tucked a stray hair behind her ear, "The village where I grew up is steeped in darkness. It's a place where those who have no power are often tread on or ignored in favor of those with the deepest pockets. Children are left to fend for themselves, while adults turn a blind eye in pursuit of riches. It was a village that I hated, but yet, I couldn't leave, because that place was my family's home. That was the way it was for a long time, but when I told Itachi-kun that I wanted to have children, we made an agreement that if I became pregnant, I would come here to where Shinjiro-san was, for both my safety and the children's."

Sasuke nodded, "The way that place is, I'm not surprised."

"That reminds me, Oneesan." Sakura began, "When Hinata, Ino, and I escorted you, you had with you a tanto that you said your husband—that is, Itachi-san—had given you, and that you treasured it deeply. Would you mind showing it to us?"

"Oh, of course!" Amai said. She reached behind her and retrieved the weapon from where it was hidden in the knot of her obi. "He gave it to me shortly after we were married, for self-defense, and he made sure I knew how to use it, of course." She handed the sword to Sakura and Sasuke looked at it from over his wife's shoulder.

"Aren't weapons outlawed in Howling Wolf Village?" He asked absently.

At that, Amai scoffed, "I was married to your _brother_, who at the time was listed in the Bingo Book as an S-Class Criminal. Besides, you know what that place is like. Do you really think I cared about what was and wasn't legal there? Not to mention, as I recall, _you_ walked around in broad daylight with a sword in plain view." Sasuke couldn't really argue with that, but Amai shook her head anyway, "Besides, that law was absurd anyway. 'Oh sure, we'll let people carry around small cylinders, which can easily be used to kill somebody, but by no means can a person carry a sword.' What kind of logic is that? Didn't you have to take Reishi-kun to the hospital because somebody tried to shoot him while he was gathering herbs?"

"Point taken." Sasuke said.

"Speaking of which, do you have any idea of how Kina-chan is doing?" Amai asked out of nowhere, or at least, it probably seemed that way to the others.

"I haven't seen him in awhile, but... I plan to go back there in a couple of years to help him seal Roen when it breaks loose again." Sasuke told her, "At the time, he refused to leave with me and become my student, which was probably for the best, but if he tries to reseal that thing alone, he'll end up dying. Reishi entrusted him to me, so I can't let that happen. Besides, if he dies, there will be nobody left to re-seal Roen in the future. By the way, Neesan, do you know how it is that my brother found out about the seal only lasting for seven years?"

Amai blinked, and then looked down. "Actually, I was the one who told him. It was several years ago..."

昔

_Amai approached Kodon Shrine and walked around to the back, where a worn stone was placed and knelt beside it. As she bowed her head, a voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts._

_"Amai?"_

_The young woman startled slightly and looked over her shoulder to find her husband Itachi standing there._

_"Oh! Itachi-kun!" She exclaimed as she stood back up, "I didn't know you were here. Did you come to obtain more of your eyedrops?"_

_Itachi nodded to her, "What are you doing here?" He asked, referring more to the shrine than anything._

_Amai looked back at the stone, "Sometimes I come here to pay my respects and remember my family, since my parents don't have a grave or anything. In particular, today, I wanted to get away from the rest of the village for a while. They're all celebrating the anniversary of the event that led to our neutrality and it's a bit noisy."_

_"The event that led to your neutrality?" Itachi questioned, reasonably unfamiliar with this story._

_"I don't actually remember myself. I lost my memories of that time due to the Roen incident." Amai admitted as she tucked a hair behind her ear, "Apparently, the Hidden Rain wanted to obtain the hallucinogenic powder and attacked the other two villages in this region and conquered them. After that, they came here, but because our shinobi couldn't match them, we used the Blue Exploding Powder instead and defeated them." Amai seemed a bit troubled as she clasped a hand to her chest, "I'm told that afterwards, the captured shinobi were forced to enter the minefield and the whole village reveled in watching them be blown to bits. I can't even... I can't even imagine what that would look like, but... what kind of people can find enjoyment in watching others die a brutal death? What kind of people can celebrate such babarianism years after the fact? To live in a village like this, I wish that the Blue Exploding Powder had never been invented!"_

_"Even if it would mean that Adzuki-chan would've died sooner than she already did? Even if it meant that you would've died yourself?" Itachi asked, and Amai gasped. The Uchiha man walked forward and gently embraced his wife from behind, "I'm not saying that you're wrong in your line of thinking. Certainly, your opinion of the villagers is not wrong in the slightest, but... the Shinobi from Ame were capable adults who came here with the intention of killing innocent civilians, even children like Adzuki-chan and yourself. There were less brutal ways to execute them, but... I imagine that the villagers had become drunk on the power that they perceived the Blue Exploding Powder to have given them. Would you have preferred for your sister to be hurt or killed over that?"_

_Amai's lip quivered before her eyes steeled with determination, "If anything or anyone had tried to harm Adzuki... I would've protected her with all my strength!" Suddenly she gasped, her large black eyes going wide as if with shock._

_"Amai?" Itachi asked with concern. That concern grew when Amai suddenly went limp in his arms. "Amai!" Not knowing what else to do, Itachi cradled his now unconscious wife and carried her to Rengyoudou to ask Reishi for his opinion._

_昔_

_"She's probably loosened the seal." Reishi informed Itachi when the latter finished explaining what had happened._

_"The seal?" Itachi asked in confusion, and Reishi sighed._

_"Whatever she's told you about her past before her parents' addiction probably isn't right." The young pharmacist explained, "Actually, Amai-neesan completed the training program for shinobi in this village. She was a prodigy with talent that had never been seen before in the Land of Medicine. That was what my father said. However, right after she completed the program was when the attack by Amegakure occurred, and right after that, the Minefield Massacre. When the village declared itself neutral after the Roen incident, Amai's father sealed away most of her memories of the five years prior and used a genjutsu to replace those memories with false ones, because he didn't want her to feel like all of her training had been for nothing. What she said about protecting her sister probably loosened the seal for some reason."_

_"I see..." Itachi said slowly before standing back up with Amai in his arms, "I'll take her home and look after her for the time being." Reishi nodded to him without bothering to ask his reasons._

_昔_

_When Amai awoke, Itachi explained what Reishi had said about the seal and asked her how she felt._

_"My mind is all muddled." Amai admitted, "I can't remember anything from that time of my life clearly now, real or otherwise, and that bothers me, because that's almost the entirety of Adzuki's life."_

_"There is a way to restore your memories..." Itachi told her reluctantly, "If I... If I use the Sharingan, I can bring your real memories to the surface, but that will mean... that I will see them too."_

_Amai took a breath and nodded, "That's okay. If it's you, then I don't mind."_

_Itachi nodded and activated his Sharingan before directing his chakra into his wife's eyes._

_昔_

_The Minefield Massacre. That was the point in Amai's true memories that they had reached, after going through five years worth of memories that had been replaced by her father's genjutsu._

_It turned out that, as Reishi had said, Amai had not given up on her training at the age of seven to look after her frail younger sister. In fact, Adzuki hadn't even been frail at all. The true Amai had been an earnest young girl, eager to learn and devoted to her training. She had indeed been a prodigy, although not one of Itachi's caliber, but even in Konoha, people would've acknowledged her talent. This explained the ease with which Amai had been able to learn things from Itachi when he began teaching her to defend herself. However, contrary to her husband, Amai had lived a more balanced life as a child. She didn't slack on her training, but she didn't devote **all** of her time to it either. She played with her sister and helped her mother in their store, the same store that she still ran today._

_And now things had reached to just after Amai's training had been completed, when the ninja from Amegakure had been defeated and the Minefield Massacre began._

_Amai held a terrified young Adzuki close to her, covering her sister's ears and shielding her from the sight of the carnage as the little girl sobbed and clung to her older sister. Amai herself was trembling, tears streaming down her horrified face. She tried to back away with Adzuki, out of the crowd, hoping to flee, but somebody stopped her._

_"Where are you going?" An adult exclaimed excitedly, oblivious to the trembling of the preteen girl before him._

_"I don't want to see this! I don't want Adzuki to see this!" Amai exclaimed in terror._

_"What are you talking about?" The man said cluelessly, "The Blue Exploding Powder is amazing, isn't it?!"_

_"This isn't amazing!" Amai insisted. "This is... this is like war!"_ _That was right. That was what Amai's adolescent mind associated the scene with. Fleeting memories from the Third War, when she had been younger than Adzuki, but had witnessed shinobi running through a battlefield in the midst of explosions set off by paper bombs. From within the chaos of blue explosions and smoke and screams, a shinobi's arm came flying out and landed in front of Amai and Adzuki. Amai screamed and passed out._

_昔_

_When Amai came to a few hours later, she saw that her parents were still trying to comfort the terrified Adzuki, so rather than turning to them for comfort, she slipped out of her house and ran to Kodon Shrine, where she knelt beside the very stone that Itachi had seen her kneeling beside in the present and cried._

_"Amai-chan?" A man's voice asked in surprise._

_Amai sniffled and looked up. "Tenma-san!" It was Reishi's father, Kodon Tenma. _

_With a sympathetic expression, he knelt down beside the young girl, "Still shaken up by what happened, huh?"_

_"That was just awful!" Amai exclaimed with tears running down her face, "I understand that those shinobi posed a threat to our village and that we couldn't just let them go, but why did we have to get rid of them like **that**?!"_

_"The villagers are too elated by the results achieved with the Blue Exploding Powder. They've become entirely too confident in its abilities." Tenma told her, "That's why they're saying now that there's no reason for us to continue being a shinobi village. However, that powder can't do everything. There are some things that only people can do."_

_Amai followed his gaze to the stone in front of her. "This stone is related to Roen, right?" She asked him, "I'm curious... why is the number seven engraved on the tiger's back?"_ _The stone was in much better condition within Amai's memories than it was currently, so Itachi could see that she was correct._

_"...You know that Roen is sealed within this shrine, right?" Tenma asked Amai after hesitating for a moment._

_"Yes." Amai said, her face still filled with confusion._

_"The seal is only strong enough to hold him for seven years." The man explained, "Every seven years, he escapes and must be resealed. Only my clan can do that. The Blue Exploding Powder wouldn't be helpful at all in that instance."_

_"So that was what you meant by 'There are some things that only people can do.'" Amai mused. "But if there's a time limit on the seal, wouldn't it be better to seal him inside of a person, the way the larger nations do with their Jinchuuriki?"_

_"That method only works long term because Bijuu are sentient." Tenma explained, "Roen is not. He's just a wild animal that seeks to feed on any chakra source that he can find. If he were sealed inside of somebody, that person might be able to contain him for a little bit longer, but... over time, the seal would weaken as that person suffered from negative emotions, and eventually, Roen would break free. If that happened, unless he were sealed back within the shrine immediately, that person would die."_

_"Oh I see." Amai replied._

_"You should go on home now, Amai-chan." Tenma told her, "I came here because the seal will come undone soon. You don't want to be around when that happens."_

_"Okay." She replied, standing up and heading for home._

_昔_

_Amai didn't know whether Tenma had been lying about the timing of the seal coming undone, or if it just conveniently coincided with his plans. What she did know was that instead of immediately resealing Roen, he had tried to use it to prove to the villagers that the Blue Exploding Powder couldn't protect them from everything. That had ended in disaster, with the attempts to attack Roen using the giant cylinders causing Tenma to lose control of the creature, at which point, it began to rampage. Amai saw this and immediately tried to flee with Adzuki, but her beloved younger sister had been caught by one of Roen's tentacles. In that moment, Tenma's words rang in the young girl's mind._

**_"There are some things that only people can__ do."_**

_It was abundantly clear to Amai. The adults, with their reliance on a simplistic weapon, could not save her baby sister, but **she** could._

_Without hesitation, she quickly wove a series of kata. "Raiton! Raiken!" This was a personal jutsu that she hadn't perfected yet, but right now, it was Adzuki's only hope, so Amai was going to ignore any doubts she had and move forward with all her strength. She didn't even celebrate her success when the lightning in her palm perfectly formed into a shining sword as it was supposed to, but instead, immediately jumped up. "Haahh!" The preteen girl screamed with effort as she cut through Roen's tentacle with her lightning sword. As soon as she had cut through, Amai allowed the sword to vanish and caught Adzuki in her arms, holding her close and landing on the ground with her. Adzuki was unconscious and weakened, but she was alive. Amai set her sister down gently and quickly performed her jutsu again, this time using the sword for a longer period of time to fend off Roen's tentacles as they came at her and Adzuki. Raiton was chakra intensive, and Amai's reserves were beginning to run low, but she would **die** of exhaustion before allowing Adzuki to fall into Roen's clutches again. Abruptly, the creature disappeared, and Amai sank to her knees in exhaustion as her sword disappeared._

_"Thank you, Amai-chan..." She heard Tenma saying to her __weakly. She turned and saw that he was lying nearby, looking extremely weak. His infant son Kina was in his arms, and Reishi was lying beside them. "Because you distracted Roen, I was able to seal him inside of Kina. You truly are a prodigy and... a hero of this village."_

_"I don't care about this village." Amai muttered tiredly, "I don't care about this village of murderers who revel in the destruction of others, but... That thing was trying to hurt Adzuki, and I would sooner die than let that happen."_

_Tenma nodded in understanding. "When I lost control of Roen, we were too far from the shrine, so I tried to seal him inside of Reishi, like you suggested earlier, but Reishi's chakra was incompatible, and my wife died when it failed. Kina's chakra was able to adapt to it, but... I've lost most of my chakra as well. I'm going to use the last of it to pass the jutsu for sealing Roen on to Reishi, since as I said before, Roen will inevitably break free of Kina at some point. Please... the first chance you get, inform Reishi of this, and of all I told you at the shrine... earlier today. And please understand... that I never meant... for it to turn out like this."_

_"I know you didn't... I think perhaps... this is our punishment for what we did to those shinobi... 'What goes around comes around', right?" Amai asked._

_Tenma chuckled wryly, "I hope that the rest of the village... is half so wise as you, Amai-chan." As the exhausted man used the last of his chakra to transfer his jutsu to his elder son, Amai found herself losing consciousness._

_A number of things followed the events of that night. Amai awakened in her home to find that Adzuki was still weak from being attacked by Roen, although her mother assured her that the little girl would be fine with rest. As soon as she was back on her feet, Amai wasted no time in telling Reishi all that she had been told by his father, but she forgot about the seven-year time limit that would be involved once Roen was back in the shrine. __The adults got together to debate how to move forward, but Amai did not attend this meeting. She stayed home to look after the tired and traumatized Adzuki._

_That same night, when her parents came home, they came into Amai and Adzuki's room as Amai was about to go to bed. Her father told her that he was going to use a jutsu to relieve some of the stress that she and Adzuki had endured recently, in order to help Adzuki recover. Amai accepted her father's explanation and leaned against her mother when she brought Amai's head back against her, stroking the young girl's hair as she softly began singing._

_"You said if you could fly, you would fly far, far into the sky—So all you'd ever know is the blue, that blue sky up above. You've yet to learn what the pain from true sadness is like. You've only had but a taste, but you're a moth to the flame. When all my feelings reach you, they'll no longer be mute—for on that day, they'll live in spoken words. From in a dream, when you awake into the world you no longer know, if you could only spread your wings and fly away! You said if you could fly, you would fly far, far into the sky—And you would set your aim on the clouds all around that endless sky. The moment you break free, you'll finally find, find all you seek. And it's all waiting there, in that blue, in that blue sky up above. In that blue, in that blue sky up above. In that blue, in that blue sky up above..."_

_Itachi stopped as he realized that that was the moment when Amai's father had sealed away her memories and replaced them with the genjutsu. He noticed tears beginning to spill down Amai's face as she became aware of the present again._

_"Why...?" She asked quietly, "Why did they...?"_

_Itachi took her hands in his, "They were trying to protect you." He said reassuringly, "They knew that you and Adzuki-chan had been frightened by the Massacre. They also probably feared that you would be heartbroken by the village's declaration of neutrality and believed you might feel as though all of the effort you had put into training had been in vain."_

_"That's so stupid." Amai muttered, "It could never be in vain. As long as I was successful in saving Adzuki that night, it would always be worth the years of effort beforehand."_

_Itachi nodded slightly, but reached up and stroked Amai's hair, "I know, but I also know that your parents weren't able to adapt to civilian life. They knew it would be hard for them, so they didn't want you to experience that too. I doubt they ever planned on becoming addicted to Sengenzai, but... they at least had the foresight to know what their own disposition would be and wanted to protect you from that same experience." He gently wiped away one of her tears with his thumb, "They loved you, Amai."_

_His wife's round, dark eyes widened at the statement before her expression turned to melancholy nostalgia. "'When all my feelings reach you, they'll no longer be mute, for on that day, they'll live in spoken words', huh?" Itachi nodded and Amai looked up at him with a strange determination in her eyes. "I want you to see the rest of it. Everything that happened until the morning following that night..."_

_Itachi blinked in surprise, but then nodded in understanding and activated his Sharingan once again, acknowledging his wife's need to share her pain with him._

_昔_

_The following morning, Amai awoke with the belief that both she and Adzuki had lost their memories of the previous two weeks as a result of having some of their chakra stolen by Roen. She also believed that Adzuki had always been a frail child and that it would simply take her a little longer to recover from the incident than it did for herself._

_How wrong she had been._

_Adzuki did recover, to a point, but she was never as healthy as she had been in the past, which reinforced Amai's belief that her sister had always been of poor constitution. However, shortly after this, the Sendo Clan began circulating the Sengenzai. Her parents had been tricked into trying it, having been told that it would alleviate their sense of restlessness now that they were no longer shinobi, and had quickly become addicted to it. Amai desperately tried to get her parents to stop taking the pills, but she soon realized that it was a lost cause. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, her parents had become indebted to the Sendo and she was left running the shop and taking care of Adzuki by herself. When Amai attempted to go to the police, the Sendou informed her that selling their product was not illegal—which was true at that time—and threatened to kill Adzuki if she tried to interfere with their business. The young girl felt helpless, trapped, and abandoned, and her only reason for living became her beloved little sister._

_And then that day came._

_Amai knew the instant that she woke up that something was wrong. Adzuki's breathing was labored and she was whimpering and crying in pain. Her skin felt unbelievably hot. Amai knew that her parents would be of no help, so she wrapped her sister in a blanket and ran to the hospital, begging them to help her._

_"Please, she's really sick." The teenager pleaded, "I don't know what it is, but... something's really, really wrong." Tears filled her eyes and her lip quivered as she looked down at her feverish sister, "I... I don't have any money, but—"_

_"What do you mean you don't have any money?" The receptionist interrupted, "Doesn't your family run a cafe or something?"_

_"We... we've been struggling ever since the village demilitarized." Amai managed, "My parents were shinobi... the store was never our main source of income." She had somehow managed to explain their financial troubles without revealing her parents' addiction but also without lying._

_To her horror, the receptionist shook her head at her, "Kid, we've already got a bunch of addicts in here who probably can't afford to pay for their treatment either. We don't have the room or the time for a penniless child whose parents can't handle being regular people. Just take her home and give her fluids. It's probably just a passing flu or something."_

_The tears began to flow down Amai's cheeks as she turned and fled from the hospital, feeling heartbroken by the lack of compassion that she had just witnessed. Where could she go? What could she do? Now that they were no longer a shinobi village, money was the only thing that anybody in this town cared about. No. There was one person, just one, who might be willing to help her._

_昔_

_"They seriously refused to even see her?" Reishi asked as helped Amai settle her sister onto a futon, "How can they even call themselves doctors?"_

_"This is the Land of Medicine..." Amai lamented, "Nobody cares about a child who can't afford to pay for medicine. You and Kina-chan are probably able to get by more easily than we are."_

_"Sure, if I could get the Sendo to stop harassing me about how to make Kotarō." Reishi remarked, "Thus far, I've managed to get away with telling them that I can't make it yet, because I'm not yet an official herbalist. Of course, it's also because I'm not an official herbalist that nobody can say one way or the other about me doing what I can for Adzuki-chan. I mean, what are they gonna say, that I was treating her without a license? That's only illegal if you're charging somebody, and even if I was licensed, I'm not so greedy that I'd turn you away just because you're broke." Amai nodded, watching Adzuki and holding the young Kina in her lap as Reishi moved about to prepare something. "Your parents are addicted to it, aren't they?" Reishi asked her, "To the Sengenzai, I mean."_

_Amai's eyes widened and then her gaze fell, "How did you know?"_

_"Well, for one thing, the fact that you came here alone, without either one of them." Reishi pointed out, "That, and even if it wasn't your main source of income before the village declared neutrality, I'm pretty sure your place makes enough that you should be able to have some money set aside for emergencies."_

_Amai sighed, "I don't suppose you have something that could cure them?"_

_"I'm not even holding my breath that I can cure your sister." Reishi said bluntly, "But why haven't you reported it?"_

_"...I can't..." She said softly, "The Sendo said that it's not illegal and that they would hurt Adzuki if I tried to interfere with them." Tears welled in her eyes again, "You're probably thinking that I'm stupid. That it's pointless if she ends up dying anyway."_

_"No." Reishi said, "It may be pointless, but... you had no way of knowing something like this would happen. For all you knew, she could've recovered completely from being attacked by Roen."_

_"Is that what's wrong with her?" Amai asked as Reishi knelt down on the other side of Adzuki._

_"Yes and no." Reishi replied. "She never did get her strength back after she was attacked by him last year. As a result, her immune system has been weakened. She probably just caught something and doesn't have the chakra reserves to fight it off on her own." He gently propped Adzuki up to help her drink the medicine that he had made. "I'm hoping this will help. I compounded it using some refined Kotaro. I won't use anything stronger on someone so small. If nothing else, it will at least make her more comfortable."_

_"Is there anything else that we can do?" Amai asked with worry._

_"For now, all we can do is try to lower her body temperature, make her comfortable, and hope for the best."_

_She nodded and then stood up, "If it's all right with you, I'll brew some herbal tea for her that can reduce fevers and aid with sleep."_

_"That's fine, but be sure to let me know what herbs you're using. We can't risk any kind of incompatibility in what we give to her." Reishi said as Amai walked over to his counter._

_Amai nodded to him and then reached into her pocket, "Oh, here. I know this doesn't really count as payment, and you already said that you can't take payment from me anyway, but... at least take these. I'm afraid it's all that I can give to you for your help."_

_Reishi looked and saw that Amai was holding out a container of sesame dango, which he accepted without protest, for her sake if nothing else._

_昔_

_Later that night, a still feverish Adzuki opened her eyes a bit. "Oneechan..."_

_"Adzuki!" Amai exclaimed, instantly rushing to her sister's side._

_Adzuki looked at her older sister with glazed eyes, "Oneechan... please... sing to me... sing our song..."_

_Amai's eyes filled with tears, but she smiled and nodded, "Sure!" She gently took Adzuki's small body into her arms and began to sing softly. "With a sound like the storm turning bitter and dark, that window shut in your heart, it shatters, falling apart—And so at last you escape from your cold, broken cage—So break away without ever looking back..." Amai was fully aware that Adzuki's breathing had stilled, but she nonetheless clung to her sister's body as she continued, "There is a chase inside my chest where my heart beats quick as my breath—And so I kick the window in and fly away..!" Amai's voice broke and she began to sob as she clung to Adzuki's still form. This continued until she felt that she could cry no longer and gently set her sister's body back on the futon. "Reishi-kun..." She began, her voice heartbroken, "Please bury her in the Mausoleum..."_

_"Where are you going?" Reishi asked with concern as Amai stood up and headed for the door. She stopped and clutched the doorframe._

_"I decided that if I lost Adzuki, I would put an end to this Sengenzai nonsense..." She answered, not bothering to turn and look at the concerned boy as she left him behind._

_昔_

_Amai went straight home and threw the shouji door to her parents' room open, only to find them passed out on the ground. 'Typical.' She thought to herself. If they weren't taking Sengenzai or eating, they were inevitably unconscious. She went to where they kept their supply of the pills, which they had never bothered to keep a secret from her, and took the entire package. After that, she opened the window to the room and slipped out of it._

_When her parents awoke sometime later, they almost immediately went for where the pills had been. "Hey..." Amai heard her father mumble in a daze from where she was sitting under the window, "Where did our heaven pills go?!"_

_'What a stupid name for these things.' She thought bitterly before standing up and facing the window. "They're right here." She said while holding the bag up for them to see._

_"Huh?" Both of her parents looked at her, "Amai, what are you doing?" Her father asked._

_"I should ask that of you!" She spat out, "Have you even bothered to wonder where Adzuki and I have been all day? Did you even notice that we were gone?!"_

_"Huh?" Her mother asked in confusion, "What do you mean? Where did you go? And where is Adzuki?"_

_Amai scoffed, "Well at least you noticed that she's not with me!" She glared at her parents, "Adzuki is dead!" She exclaimed in heartbreak, "When I woke up this morning, she was sick and the hospital wouldn't treat her because you two have been spending all of your money on **this**!" She shook the bag to emphasize her point._

_"Give that back to us, Amai." Her mother mumbled as they both approached the window._

_Amai stepped back, glaring defiantly at her parents with tears in her eyes. She had hoped that the news of Adzuki's death would cause them to hit rock bottom, but it was like they hadn't even heard her. Was there even any hope left for these people?_

_"If you want it, then come and take it from me." She told them evenly._

_That was enough to send her parents into a rage, and they quickly moved to go through the window and chase their daughter as Amai turned and started running. She wasn't afraid. Her parents may have been former shinobi, but whatever skills they possessed were incredibly dulled by the Sengenzai and she had made a point long ago to hide all of their ninja tools from them while they were passed out, so she wouldn't have to worry about dodging any projectiles, however poorly thrown they might have been. Her parents chased after her, but Amai was much faster. She might not have been able to recall the extent of her training, but she was at least of the presence of mind to control her chakra, and they were not. In fact, she was having to purposely pace herself to avoid losing them, but she kept what she considered to be a sufficient distance as she ran to the lake near the village._

_She stopped at the edge of the water and turned to look back her parents, who were winded as they approached._

_"Give us back our heaven pills, Amai!" Her father demanded, but she only glared at them._

_"If you want it so badly, if this drug is so precious to you, then go and get it yourselves!" With that, she turned and threw the pills into the lake with all her strength._

_Her parents both let out a cry of alarm and rushed toward the water, inadvertently pushing Amai down in the sand as they passed her. Amai quickly realized that her parents actually did intend to try and retrieve the pills._

_"No! Otousan! Okaasan! Come back!" She cried, knowing that she had thrown the pills beyond the shallows and that it would be impossible for her parents to retrieve them from such deep water. When her parents ignored her cry, she stood up and tried to go in after them._

_"Amai-neechan, don't!" Suddenly Amai felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist and hold her back. She looked down at Reishi, who was clinging to her in an attempt to stop her from following her parents. He was carrying Kina on his back._

_"Let me go, Reishi-kun!" Amai screamed as she struggled against the surprisingly strong eight-year-old, watching as her parents vanished beneath the water and didn't appear to even be trying to come back up. "My parents—"_

_"You can't save them!" Reishi insisted, "There's no way that you'd be strong enough! You would just end up joining them!"_

_"I don't care!" Amai exclaimed, "I've already lost Adzuki, so what does it—"_

_"Adzuki-chan would want you to **live!" **Reishi insisted. That caused Amai to stop struggling. "She would want you to survive and find happiness again. Your parents would want that too."_

_Amai sank to her knees as she realized that Reishi was right. She began to cry once more whilst singing in a forlorn voice. "You said if you could fly, you'd fly and nothing would stop you. You're tempted by that voice that's so far, so far from where you are. I'll take your eager hand and take you far, far away with me, so you can see my world. It's that blue, that blue sky up above..."_

_昔_

_Reishi took Amai home and she cried herself to sleep. The following morning, she heard somebody pounding on the door of the cafe, so she reluctantly got up and answered it to find Sendo Jiryuu standing there, along with some of his clansmen._

_"Lord Jiryuu." Amai said, her voice a mixture of depression and resentment, "What are you doing here?"_

_"Why wasn't the store open yesterday?" Jiryuu demanded._

_'Of course this is about money.' Amai thought bitterly. "Adzuki was sick yesterday. I couldn't risk the health and safety of our customers. Besides, I couldn't look after her and run the store both."_

_"And today?" Jiryuu demanded._

_"My sister died last night." Amai replied bitterly, "And my parents drowned themselves in the lake in pursuit of that counterfeit drug of yours."_

_"If your sister is dead, then there's no risk to the customers, so get to work!" Jiryuu demanded._

_Amai glared at him, her eyes like black steel, "I don't think you understand. My parents are gone. I have no intention of taking responsibility for the debt they accrued purchasing a counterfeit drug from you."_

_"I think you're the one who doesn't understand, Amai." Jiryuu said as he stepped closer to the teenager and stood over her, "You're young and you don't know how the world works yet. You're naive, just like your name. If you try to go to the police for help, we will kill you. And if you don't want the entire village to know that your parents were worthless addicts, or that **you** were the one that killed them, then you'll do as you are told. Understand this well, girl. From this day forward, both you and this shop belong to my clan."_

_Amai's lip quivered as she came to realize the severity of her situation. "Lord Jiryuu, please, I just lost my entire family, I can't—" Suddenly the dark-haired girl fell to the ground as Jiryuu slapped her. She clutched her cheek and looked up at him, her fear-filled eyes brimming with tears._

_"I couldn't care less about what happened to your family!" The man spat at her, "You've already spent one day's worth of earnings trying to save a child who couldn't be saved! Don't go wasting another. Unless, of course, you **want** the interest on the debt that you owe to us to accrue even higher!" With that said, Jiryuu turned and left the store with his clansmen, closing the door behind them. Amai sat on the floor and sobbed. How could she be expected to endure this now? Abruptly, Reishi's words from the night before floated through her mind._

**_'Adzuki-chan would want you to live! She would want you to survive and find happiness again! Your parents would want that too!'_**

_Happiness. Did something like that even exist in the darkness that had consumed Amai's world? She wasn't sure, but... there was one thing that she was certain of. She wouldn't allow the darkness to consume her as well. No matter what. It had taken her family, but it would not take her._

_"Hey, it's okay to fail." She sang softly to herself, "Yeah, it's okay to fall. What really counts, what only counts, is if you pull yourself back up!" She stood up and headed into the kitchen to begin preparing the sweets for that day._

_昔_

_Itachi removed himself from Amai's memories again and smiled softly at her in a way that conveyed fondness, sympathy, and amazement, all at once. "Where in the world do you get such strength?"_

_Amai smiled in bemusement at him, "This coming from **you** of all people. You've suffered through much worse than I have." Without allowing him to protest, she leaned her head on Itachi's chest. "I kept my promise to them though. I survived in the darkness here and managed to find happiness again." She looked up at Itachi and cupped his cheek as she reassured him, "And when you're gone, I will do it again. Always, always, until the day that my own time comes." She leaned up and softly kissed her husband, then pulled back smiling up at him as she softly sang; "You said if you could fly, you would fly far, far into the sky—And you would set your aim on the clouds all around that endless sky. The moment you break free, you'll finally find, find all you seek. And it's all waiting there in that blue, in that__ blue sky up above. In that blue, in that blue sky up above. In that blue, in that blue sky up above..."_

* * *

Whew! Long chapter! I decided to chuck the idea of having all my chapters be close to the same length and just make sure that they aren't _shorter_ than a certain number of words. But as I said in a recent update to Sweet and Naive, I intended on including the story of why Amai's explanation of her past was different at the end of the story than at the beginning. There was nowhere in that story that I could just insert it, so I included it in this story instead. I'm not exactly sure when this flashback takes place, but I'm gonna say it's around the last time that Itachi visited Rengyoudou to buy his eyedrops. And yeah, we have some explanations of some other people's pasts and their clan histories as well.


	7. Settling Matters

"After that, Itachi-kun wrote the number seven on the back of his request paper for Kotarō, since it was the only paper he had with him at the time." Amai concluded. Naturally, she hadn't told Sasuke and the others the entirety of this story, but rather, a much briefer overview for the sake of time.

"I see..." Sasuke said thoughtfully.

"I never realized that you had it so hard in your village..." Sakura said, seeming mildly shocked.

Amai nodded, "People often lament about the darkness of the shinobi world, but... I don't think it's the existence of shinobi that creates that darkness. My own village is proof that there is darkness in the world whether shinobi are there are not. For instance, think of Kaguya. When she came to this world, shinobi did not exist yet, but even so, she was betrayed by her own husband and marked for death. That set off a chain of events that eventually culminated in the war. I don't think that any one person can be said to be at fault for all that our clan has suffered. One could blame Shimura Danzō, or they could say that Indra was at fault, but they could also say that Kaguya was to blame, or even further, blame her husband for betraying her. Rather than a single person, the things that have occurred... the troubles that all of us have suffered... are the sum effect of numerous bad choices made by numerous individuals." Amai shook her head, "But most people don't look at it that way. Itachi-kun once told me that when bad things happen, people naturally look for someone to blame, and they tend to choose a target that's within their reach, rather than a real culprit that is far beyond them. In that way, both the Uchiha and Naruto-kun were made to suffer after the Kyuubi incident. In the same way, my village blamed its own darkness on the shinobi, never realizing that it would exist with or without them. However, I don't agree with Reishi-kun's belief at that time that when a shinobi dies, their jutsu die with them. He, himself, was proof of the opposite. Even when a shinobi dies, their jutsu live on in those that they have passed them down to. Just as Tenma-san passed down his jutsu to Reishi-kun, and just as Naruto-kun inherited his father's Rasengan." She smiled a little, "Tamana has inherited my capacity for Raiton. When she is old enough, I want to pass my own jutsu onto her."

Sasuke nodded in both confirmation and understanding, "By the way, Neesan, do you happen to know where Itachi was buried? I was told that he was buried properly, but never informed where."

"Oh, yes." Amai said with a nod, "Actually, his grave is in the Mausoleum, next to my younger sister's. When I was informed of Itachi-kun's passing, I asked them to place him there. I suppose if I had been thinking, I should've shown you where it was, but then again, you might've found that a little odd at the time."

"Yeah." Sasuke said with a nod.

"By the way, why did you ask for me to come here, Sasuke?" Sai asked out of the blue. "The Yamanaka aren't part of this agreement that you mentioned."

"Because you know how to draw." Sasuke said simply, "The alliance needs something to represent it. However, the usual means of showing alliance is too... obvious. Given the state of our clans, we need something that only we and our allies will recognize."

"I see..." Sai said thoughtfully.

"In that case, maybe a combination of things that represent our clans would work." Shinjiro suggested. "The crest of the Uzumaki is a symbol of friendship in Konoha, so using it wouldn't be too problematic. Since it's red, we could overlay it with the tomoe that appear within the Sharingan. An iridescent layer over the whole thing could be used to represent my clan, since the Shinjitsugan causes the eyes to appear iridescent when active. In addition, the three tomoe of the Sharingan could also represent each of the three clans."

"Oh! The sounds great!" Naruto agreed.

"Then in that case, we'll call it the Agreement of the Three Tomoe." Sakura added.

"So, like this?" Sai asked as he held up a sketch of what Shinjiro had suggested.

Shinjiro nodded to him. "Yes, that should work. The problem is what the item should be."

"What about a pendant?" Amai asked, "One of my friends here has a husband who is a jewelry maker. It's a profitable business in a town like this. Something small and easy to conceal would be ideal."

"That's a good idea." Sasuke said with a nod, "This won't be necessary for Naruto and I, but if any of the rest of us have an emergency, they can send the pendant to one of the others as a request for help. It can also be a means to help us connect with each other's allies."

At that moment, Shinjiro apparently sensed something and went outside before coming back in with a hawk on his arm. "I'm guessing this messenger hawk came from Konohagakure." He said as he walked over to Sasuke, pulling out the sheet of paper that the bird was carrying and holding it out to him.

Sasuke took the paper and read it before looking up at Amai. "Neesan, Kakashi is coming here tomorrow to discuss the best course of action for you and the twins."

Amai nodded to Sasuke and then Oyu stood up. "Well then, now that we've gotten all of that out of the way, why don't we all go take a soak in the hot springs? Don't worry about the children. Shinjiro-kun can monitor them easily while we relax."

Everyone agreed to this idea and headed for the baths.

巴

The following morning, the entire group was eating breakfast when Naruto felt something poking him and looked down to find Haru prodding at his stomach. "What are you doing there, Haru?" He asked in confusion.

The little girl didn't turn her head towards him, but her face was rather perturbed. "More chakra..." She muttered, seeming frustrated and confused.

"Huh?" Naruto said in confusion. Shinjiro chuckled awkwardly.

"She's probably sensing Kurama-han inside of you." He explained as he watched his daughter, "Haru's used to sensing extra chakra signatures... in women who are expecting... She's never seen it in a man before. And she's bright enough to have figured out already that only women have babies. That's why she's so perplexed about it."

"Oh, I see." Naruto said with a grin.

Shinjiro sighed in bemusement, "She probably didn't notice it yesterday because she was so intent on establishing familial bonds. She's very curious, which isn't bad, but... sometimes it causes her to blurt out very awkward things..."

Amai laughed at this, "Shinjiro-san, _all_ children manage to create awkward situations for their parents. I think it's too remind us that we shouldn't get too hung up on what other people are think of us." She added with an amused smile.

"It's hard to imagine Itachi-san ever being like that." Sakura mused, and Amai burst out laughing again.

"Are you kidding? He may not have seemed like it, but Itachi-kun was the definition of awkward." She told her younger sister, "He was terrible at expressing his feelings and always being entirely too blunt about things. Or, occasionally, he would do the opposite and speak so vaguely that you had _no_ idea what he was saying! He told me about the day that he first met a classmate of his when he was young. She said 'maybe we take the same way home?' And he replied, 'There's only one Uchiha Compound. Of course we take the same way home.'"

Sakura covered her mouth to stifle a laugh, "Oh gosh. I never pictured him as the type to be _that_ oblivious!"

Amai laughed as well, "Well he was only about seven at the time. I suppose it's normal for boys that age to have other things on their minds. But that bluntness is something that never really changed about him." She smiled fondly at the memories of her husband, "That's not to say he was always awkward about it though. He loved to tease me about being naive. It frustrated me at first, but I eventually came to understand that just because he was pointing it out didn't mean that he thought it was bad."

"It seems like you knew my brother well." Sasuke commented.

Amai thought with a sense of dry amusement that _most _women knew their husbands well, but smiled softly as she replied, "About as well as anyone knew him, I suppose. Itachi-kun was secretive by nature. I understood that about him and accepted it, and as I said, he was terrible at expressing his feelings. I never quite knew exactly what was going on in that head of his, despite his claims that I could see right through him." She looked over at the twins and said too quietly for them to hear, "And now it's like I'm raising two of him." One might have thought this to be a sign of exasperation, but the smile on the young woman's lips made it obvious that she wouldn't have it any other way.

At that moment, Shinjiro looked up, "I think Lord Sixth is here. I'll go greet him." He said while standing up from the table, scooping up Haru, and heading for the door to the kitchen.

"He 'thinks' my foot." Oyu said with a shake of her head and an amused smile, "He _knows_ that Lord Sixth has arrived. Shinjiro-kun never forgets a person's chakra. I think he just wanted an excuse to make Haru stop prodding at Naruto-san." The other women in the room laughed while Sasuke and Sai were left confused as to what exactly was so funny about that.

A moment later, Hatake Kakashi poked his head in as he entered the kitchen. "Yo."

Sasuke stood up to greet his former instructor, along with Amai. "Sorry for the trouble, Kakashi."

"Don't worry about it." Kakashi said with a wave of his hand, "I'm glad to come and meet Itachi's wife. I take it that would be you?" He asked Amai.

Amai smiled at him and nodded, "Yes. It's a great pleasure to meet you, Lord Sixth. Itachi-kun spoke very highly of you. He said that to him, you were the ideal superior when he entered the ANBU and he was glad when he found out that you were Sasuke-kun's instructor."

Kakashi blinked and then chuckled before noticing the twins, who were peeking out at him from behind their mother, "And these are your children?"

"Ah, yes." Amai said, her smile growing as she looked at her little ones and a placed a hand on each child's head, "This is Tamana and Dango. You'll have to forgive them. They're not used to having so many strangers around."

"But this place is a hot springs resort..." Ino said, "And you run the cafe that's attached."

"Yes, but Tamana and Dango don't interact with the customers all that often." Amai explained, "And it's rare that we have family and friends visiting like this."

"She's right." Shinjiro said as he came in from behind Kakashi, still holding Haru in his arms, "We don't have the children making contact with the clientele all that often yet. Three kids with Kekkei Genkai? Probably not the best idea. Especially when you take into account people like Oyashiro En."

"That reminds me..." Kakashi said, "Do you have any idea of where we could find that man? He managed to escape when the Hidden Mist raided the Coliseum."

"Actually, I do..." Shinjiro said thoughtfully, "Not long after the Coliseum was shut down, a hot springs health resort was suddenly opened in Hell Valley. It struck me as strange, since most people in this country believe that that place is cursed. However, I've been unable to investigate myself because En is a sensory type. If I got too close, or even happened to pass over the sources of the mineral springs there, he would become aware of my presence. Even if I could investigate, it's doubtful that Yugakure would be willing to do anything."

Sasuke looked thoughtful for a moment, "Would it be possible for Haru to identify him?"

Shinjiro blinked, and then looked thoughtful, "In theory. She knows Chino-neesan's chakra. But... I don't want to risk her being anywhere near..."

"I understand that." Sasuke said with a nod, "Just hear me out. I would never involve her without your permission, but... If Sakura, Naruto, Hinata, and I went to the resort and took her with us, we could be acting under the premise that Sakura is interested in what they do there. If Haru senses En's presence, she can tell us and Hinata or Naruto can track him from there. The moment Haru alerts me, I would activate my Susanoo in order to shield all of us from En's Ketsuryuugan. No genjutsu, not even the Infinite Tsukuyomi, can penetrate it. If we fight him using only Susanoo and Naruto's Shadow Clones, there would be no chance of him ever laying a hand on Haru."

Shinjiro considered this for a moment, "That could work... but on one condition." He said, "You have to keep Haru hidden at all times. The dark blue hair that she and I share is as associated with my clan as red hair is to the Uzumaki Clan. If En sees her, he'll _know_ she's my daughter."

"Understood." Sasuke said with a nod.

"And while you're doing that, I'll discuss matters with Amai-san." Kakashi said with a nod of approval.

Shinjiro handed Haru over to his wife and headed into another part of the kitchen, "Let me pack some food and supplies. I'll go with you as far as I can without being detected by En. Hell Valley is a day's journey from here, so Haru will probably get fussy if she's separated from Oyu-chan and I for too long."

巴

Luckily enough, the mission to capture Oyashiro En was fairly easy to complete. Shinjiro insisted that that was because it was carried out by the four strongest shinobi alive. Naruto joked that this had to be the first time anyone had relied on a baby's help to complete a mission, which honestly disturbed the rest of them, since none of them would've even suggested it if Sasuke's Susanoo hadn't been capable of protecting Haru from all harm. Boruto and Sarada had actually been brought along too, although that was mostly because of the length of the mission and the fact that Sakura had been the key to entering the place without rousing suspicion. Since neither she nor Hinata were even able to leave the Susanoo due to the danger of En's genjutsu, they had been able to watch over their children the entire time while Sasuke and Naruto fought the actual battle. After turning En over to shinobi that Kakashi had called for from Konoha, they returned to Byoukan, where Kakashi began to explain the arrangement that he and Amai had decided on.

"For now, Amai and the twins will go to live in Yama Sato, where Itachi's apprentice, Aiko lives." Kakashi told Sasuke and Sakura, "Aiko is the ideal person to oversee the twins' training and ensure their safety. She told me that she plans to move back to Konoha when her first child is old enough to enter the Academy, but to my knowledge, she doesn't even have a child yet, so the twins will have a fair amount of time to grow in a place where their safety can be assured."

"That reminds me, why doesn't Aiko return to Konoha sooner?" Sakura asked.

"Right now, it's still not safe for her to live there." Kakashi explained, "Aiko's mother was originally from the Shimura Clan, but she became estranged from her family when she married Aiko's father. Although Danzo is gone, she still has enemies among the Shimura, particularly in the head family, who consider themselves to have been snubbed by her mother when she married Aiko's father, instead of the clan head as her parents and Danzo had agreed upon without her consent. Things in Konoha haven't become quite stable enough yet for me to be certain that she wouldn't be targeted if she returned. Right now, she can enter and exit the village without anyone really knowing who she is, but if her name is added back to the village's registry..."

"She won't be able to hide anymore." Sasuke said with a nod.

"That same political instability is the reason that the twins and I won't be living in Konoha for now." Amai said. "Sakura-chan is strong. She can protect Sarada-chan even if you are away, but it would be much more difficult if she also has to keep an eye on myself and the twins. Even if I am acting as the clan head, it will be easier for us to stay safe in a more rural area."

"Speaking of which, even though Amai will be acting as the clan head, her name and the names of the twins won't be added to the clan registry until they come to live in Konoha full-time." Kakashi said, "Amai's existence will be a secret that only myself and the Jounin Counsel know about, and we won't even inform them of the twins."

"So in other words, as far as they'll know, Sarada will be the next head of the clan and Neesan will only be acting head while Sarada is young." Sasuke surmised.

"Essentially." Kakashi said with a nod.

"But, are you really sure about this, Sasuke-kun?" Amai asked with worry, "My knowledge of the clan is limited to what I've heard from Itachi-kun. I'm not really sure that I can make the best decisions for all of us..."

"If Itachi fell in love with you, then it's hard to imagine that you're unreasonable or rash." Sasuke assured her, "You're better suited to the position than me. I don't have the patience for those meetings and I don't want Sakura to have to take over it when she already has so many responsibilities in the village. It's far better for the clan if somebody with a level-head is representing us." Amai smiled softly and nodded in confirmation.

"That said..." Kakashi began, "I would like for you to come with us to Konoha, Amai, so that we can properly introduce you to the Jounin Counsel."

"What about the children?" Amai asked with concerned.

"The best thing to do would be to take them to Aiko first." Kakashi admitted. "They look so much like Itachi that it probably wouldn't be safe to bring them with us."

Amai smiled wryly, "That's true... However, it's probably best if you explain everything to the Counsel instead of me. Contrary to my husband, I can't tell a lie to save my life, and if they start questioning why Itachi-kun's widow is acting head instead of Sarada-chan's father..."

"Yeah, I got it." Kakashi said with a nod.

巴

After having entrusted Tamana and Dango to Aiko in Yama Sato, Amai journeyed to Konoha with Sasuke and the others, and a meeting of the Jounin Counsel was called.

"First off, let me start by explaining the reason for this meeting." Kakashi began before gesturing Amai to come forward. "This is Uchiha Amai. She's Itachi's widow. They were married during the time that he was protecting Konoha from abroad."

This caused several murmurs of surprise before Sasuke stepped forward to speak. "Neesan will be the acting head of the Uchiha for the time being. That is her right as Itachi's wife until the heir to the clan is old enough."

Although they wondered why Sasuke didn't refer to the heir by name, they assumed he was referring to Sarada.

"But Sasuke, shouldn't you be the head of the clan?" Akimichi Choji asked, having recently taken over the position for his own father.

"Itachi was the first born." Sasuke said simply, "Until the heir to the clan is old enough to take over, Amai will be acting head. That's the procedure in our clan."

"Ordinarily, the second born would take over in the event that the first born should die without having children." Hinata's father, Hyūga Hiashi remarked.

"I'm not well suited to handling these things, and besides, I still have an investigation to finish." Sasuke replied, "I'll be staying in Konoha for a little while, but it won't be long before I have to leave again. This isn't something that I can afford to put off. Sakura will be too busy between work and Sarada. I don't want to make her take on more responsibilities."

Hiashi nodded in confirmation before the elder Utatane Koharu spoke up, "Amai-san, what are your feelings toward Konoha?"

"My feelings?" Amai asked in confusion.

"Surely you know the depth of your husband's past and of the Uchiha Clan?" Koharu elaborated.

Understanding dawned on Amai's face before she smiled softly, her face turning nostalgic. "Itachi-kun was my husband, and I loved him dearly. For that reason, I could never harbor ill feelings towards the village that he loved so much. With that said, I don't blame Konoha in any way for what happened. I don't believe the blame can be placed on any one person or group of people. The tragedy of the Uchiha is one in a long chain of events that started with Ootsutsuki Kaguya and ended with her. Now that things have been settled, I believe our clan finally has a chance to start anew."

"What about your own people?" Koharu's associate, Mitokado Homura asked.

"My family passed away before Itachi-kun and I ever met." Amai replied, "As for where I come from... I have no attachment to the village where I was born." Her gaze lowered as she continued, "That village is steeped much further in darkness than Konoha ever was. Itachi-kun was the one who saved me from that darkness. For me, the Uchiha are my family and Konoha is my home."

The elders seemed satisfied with this. "Well then," Koharu began, "Perhaps we could ask you about a matter that has been delayed for quite some time."

"What is it?" Amai asked.

"The Uchiha District... or rather, the former site of it." Koharu told her, "The compound was essentially destroyed along with the rest of Konoha during Pain's attack six years ago, but the land technically still belongs to the clan. It's never been decided what should be done with it."

Amai looked thoughtful at this statement, "...If it's all right..." She began, "I would like for the training grounds and the former site of Nakano Shrine to remain in our possession. Itachi-kun actually loved living in that location, because the shrine was the place where the Uchiha Clan originated and because of its proximity to the forest. That said, I don't think that the clan should continue to live there. It's too isolated from the rest of the village. While I can imagine that Sasuke-kun would prefer to reside in an area where there is at least elbow room, the fact is, our clan is currently so small that we could all be living within a single block of each other and still have space. Having an exclusive compound is just... overkill, and I don't think it would be good for us to be so far removed from the rest of the village as we were in the past."

Homura nodded, "What you are saying is logical. Then the training grounds and the former location of the shrine will remain with the clan and a more suitable place of residence will be chosen."

巴

"I'm glad all that is settled." Sakura said to Amai as she laid Sarada down for a nap. "I know that Sasuke-kun was not looking forward to having to decide what to do with that land. I think you really made the best decision though."

Amai smiled awkwardly, "I'm still not sure about my ability to handle all of this, but... at that time, I was just thinking of what would've made Itachi-kun the happiest, and what I felt would be best for all of us. The Uchiha have been isolated for far too long. The next generation should be encouraged to break that cycle."

Sakura nodded in acknowledgment and then looked up when the front door opened. "I'm home." Sasuke announced just loudly enough to be heard.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said as she hurried to greet her husband with Amai following. "How did it go?" She asked.

"There's a lot that needs to be sorted through, but I was able to find what I wanted for now." Sasuke said before walking over to Amai. "Here. I think you should have this." He held out an elegant hairpin to his sister-in-law, the primary feature being the Uchiha Crest. "This hairpin has been passed down in the head family for generations, from one matriarch to the next."

Amai's eyes widened in surprise. "Are you sure I should have this?" She asked shyly.

"Under normal circumstances, it would've been passed on to you anyway." Sasuke told her. Amai chose not to point out that under normal circumstances, Itachi likely would've been required to marry a woman from their clan. "Someday, when Dango marries, you can pass it on to your daughter-in-law. That's the tradition in our clan." His expression softened as he looked at the hairpin, "That's what Kaasan and Itachi would have wanted."

Amai seemed a bit embarrassed, but she nonetheless nodded and accepted the hairpin. "Thank you."

Sasuke nodded and then pulled something else out of the bag he was carrying. "I managed to find this too. It's from when I was a child. For me, looking at things like this is painful, but for the twins, it might be an important link to their father." Amai carefully took the item that Sasuke was holding out to her, a photo album and nodded in understanding. "Tell them stories about him. Let them know... who he was."

Amai smiled softly and nodded. "I will. No matter what, I'll protect them, love them, and teach them of their father, who never allowed hatred to erase his deep love. That's what I promised your ancestor, and it's a vow that I make to you... and to Itachi-kun as well."

* * *

Whew! Finished! This story is... not my best one in my opinion, but it's important because it contains information relating to future stories.

Also, because I couldn't find a good place to include the information: Sasuke had been inside of the emergency bunkers, looking through where the personal belongings of his clan had been stored to find the hairpin and photo album. Everyone in Konoha has storage in the bunkers for their most treasured belongings, to protect them in case of a devastating attack. For Sasuke, nearly everything believed to be of personal value to himself or to any of the deceased members of his clan are there.


End file.
